Steiner breaks the internet with Haas PR stunt

Sam Hall
Monday 28 November 2022 13:08 - Updated: 09:40

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has revealed how he "crashed" the internet for four hours.

The Italian has seen his fame rise drastically since the start of the Netflix docu-series 'Drive to Survive', with his candid and forthright comments drawing reactions from fans.

Keen to cash in on his popularity, Haas printed t-shirts with phrases inspired by words uttered by Steiner, including, "We look like a bunch of legends," and "Fok smash door."

To build publicity, Haas decked Alfa Romeo team principal Fred Vasseur and Pirelli motorsport director Mario Isola in the clothing following a press conference in the United States.

But it transpires that Haas underestimated the popularity of Steiner, with the 57-year-old revealing on the 'Beyond the Grid' podcast that the merchandise caused severe problems for the team's partner.

"The team decided and told me that they were going to make t-shirts with a few things I've said on it and see if we can sell them," said Steiner.

"I said it was fine by me. It was for the team, it is not me personally that gets any profits from it and they put it on sale.

"In the beginning, they didn't print tens of thousands of it, but they sold out within a day or so.

"They even told me that the company that is doing all of our merchandise and team clothing, they put it on their website and the website crashed for four hours.

"The owner came to me and said that had never happened to him [before]."

Asked about his 'new-found fame', Steiner added: "I don't mind it, but I didn't work for this.

"It wasn't something you try to do. What I try to do is to run a racing team, get us as competitive as possible and this just happened."