F1 News: Guenther Steiner announces new major project after Haas sacking

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Steiner announces new major project after F1 sacking

Steiner was replaced by Ayao Komatsu as Haas team principal in January

Cal Gaunt

Wednesday 24 January 2024 12:57

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Following the success of his 2023 volume, Surviving to Drive, former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner is set to release a second F1 book.

The initial book, recounting the inside story of Haas' 2022 season and delving into Steiner's career, sold over 150,000 copies and will soon be available in 12 languages, with a UK paperback version scheduled for March.

Steiner and ghostwriter James Hogg have now begun their second collaboration, potentially with a new perspective following Steiner's recent departure from the team.

Guenther Steiner is writing his second F1 book after being sacked by Haas

Steiner was replaced by Ayao Komatsu as Haas team principal

Steiner: The story has changed

“We are working on the second book at the moment,” Steiner told Motorsport.com. “That was planned already before. Now, obviously, the story maybe changes a little bit!

"It was a completely new experience. And I learned a lot about how some industries work, how things are done because I was never exposed to this before.

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“And I actually enjoyed working with the writer, he is a cool dude, we had good fun. And he had good fun as well.

"He said hanging out with me was always good fun because it was never the pressure of ‘we need to do this’. It all came very organically.”

Steiner could reveal all about what went on behind the scenes at Haas as he was ousted from his position

Steiner denies distractions

Steiner refuted suggestions that his involvement in penning the book, Surviving to Drive, or his appearances on the popular Netflix series, Drive to Survive, diverted his attention from his responsibilities with the Haas F1 team.

"I think people are overrating that, how much distraction that is,” he said. “Because it isn't actually a lot of distraction from the daily job.

“Obviously on the race weekends, you need to work more. But for example, I didn't have 20 [sponsor] appearances a weekend, I had maybe three maximum.

“It's not like that is distracting, even writing the book. Obviously, a ghostwriter does it for you.

“Now I've got more time, but even now, we do two sessions a week of half an hour. We do one on Tuesday and one on Friday. That's all I do, he does the rest.

“You speak with him, but it's not like I spent days speaking with him. I know that some people have spent days speaking with these people, but I didn't.

“I don't think that is a big factor. I think that there were more benefits for the team than anything else about this because they got a lot of sponsors."

Haas Guenther Steiner Ayao Komatsu motorsport.com