NETFLIX’S new instalment of their hit F1 show “Drive to Survive” airs on Friday but one of the stars of the series has never watched a single episode.
Haas boss Guenther Steiner was the key character in the first series, which has been responsible for helping propel F1’s success across the globe.
The sport’s popularity is booming – three sold-out races in the US, a joint-record 23-race calendar with more circuits clambering to join along with some new teams – F1 has never had it so good.
Anyone who has watched the show will know that Steiner – and his F-word rants – can lay claim to helping boost F1’s appeal – but as he puts it, he’s still waiting for F1 to provide him with a big cheque to say thank you.
“I have never watched an episode,” he says. “In the beginning I didn’t want to watch because I don’t really enjoy watching myself.
“I also didn’t want to get influenced to change when I am doing something. If you are an actor, you learn from your mistakes.
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“I don’t want to be an actor because maybe everytime I see a camera, it may have an effect on how I behave.
“It sounds very complex but for me it was a very simplistic thought process and now if I start to watch it, it was OK in the beginning, so why go back and change now?”
Steiner says he jokes with F1’s CEO Stefano Domenicali and business tycoon, Greg Maffei, who is the CEO of Liberty Media CEO, who own the rights to F1, about his influence in the show.
The likeable Italian is now an icon thanks to playing himself and his popularity is staggering.
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He added: “We always joke with Stefano and Greg but you know, they have not reached out and told me they are sending a cheque!
“Stefano has known me for 20 years and knows I am the same person and nothing has changed. It is part of what we are doing.
“But I am recognised a lot more. The strange thing is you never know when you are alone or not.
“You can be sitting somewhere and you’re thinking nobody knows you and you forget about it and then someone says your name, but it is nothing bad, especially in the States, people are well behaved and ask for a picture.
“For my family, when the first series came out, my daughter was eight and people called your name or stopped me on the street and she would ask me if I knew these guys, and I was like no, but now it is not an issue.”
Steiner says he is not shocked by just how popular the fly-on-the-wall series has been but he is surprised about how it has changed the shape of F1 commercially.
His team, and the same of others on the grid, have been able to attract sponsorship they would not have been able to after Liberty Media opened up the sport to a wider audience.
He said: “F1 gives a lot of interesting things to the fans. To the new fans, it opens it up and they are telling the story.
“F1 missed out on not telling the story. Can you imagine if it would have started up maybe 20 years ago?
“Liberty Media understood the entertainment and they came in and realised there is a bigger story to be told.
“It has been a benefit to teams. A lot of sponsors come in because they want to be seen and it has done well for all the teams.
“The big teams are not the only ones people are interested in.
Before, you only saw the big teams on TV but now on normal TV they show the smaller teams as well because people are interested in what they are doing as well.
“We have been put on the map for sponsors that we are an interesting team, even if we are not winning races yet.”
Steiner saw his team kick off pre-season testing in Bahrain on Thursday ahead of the season-opener on March 5th.
He has picked veteran Nico Hulkenberg to replace Mick Schumacher, who is now a reserve driver at Mercedes.
Steiner was also linked with a move for Daniel Ricciardo, who finds himself as a reserve at Red Bull after turning down Haas.
It seemed like a backward step for the Aussie to turn down a seat on the grid, but Steiner has no hard feelings.
He said: “Nico is settling in really well. All the interaction is as expected. There was a plan because he was an experienced person and he is giving guidance to the guys.
“As for Daniel, I am not disappointed. Everybody can take his decision. If Danny had no interest, I respect that he did not waste my time in speaking with me.
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“I respect that fully. It was pretty clear when he did not engage that he had no interest and I did not call back to show that I was desperate so it was a fair way of dealing with it.
“I am very OK with the attitude because he did not waste my time and we can both get on like we did before.”
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
