Haas boss Steiner pens book covering team’s tumultuous 2022 season

2022 F1 season

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Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has written a book giving his personal perspective on the Formula 1 team’s 2022 season.

Entitled ‘Surviving to Drive’ – a not-so-subtle reference to Netflix’s F1 documentary series ‘Drive to Survive‘ in which Steiner has become one of the central subjects – the book will provide Steiner’s first-hand account of the team’s latest championship campaign.

After sacrificing development of their 2021 car to prioritise the team’s 2022 challenger for F1’s revolutionary new regulations, Haas’ pre-season preparation was thrown into chaos by the Russian military invasion of Ukraine in February. The outbreak of war led to sanctions against Russian businesses by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and others, leading to Haas cutting ties with the title sponsor Uralkali and driver Nikita Mazepin.

Replacing Mazepin with former driver Kevin Magnussen, the team scored points in the season-opener in Bahrain and eventually secured eighth place in the constructors’ championship. Magnussen also delivered a shock pole position for the sprint race at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The team continued the overhaul of its driver line-up at the end of the season, dropping Mick Schumacher in favour of returning veteran Nico Hulkenberg for 2023.

“I don’t think I could have picked a more active year than this one in terms of documenting some of the many things a team principal has to go through in Formula 1,” Steiner said.

“I’ve never looked at keeping a diary before and while I like to look forward, it’s been fun to look back over this year proofing this book again and reflecting on the many highs and lows we’ve encountered at Haas.

“I hope people enjoy this insight into our 2022 season and hopefully they’ll come along for the ride in 2023 when we look to build on this year’s successes.”

The book, due to be published by Penguin on April 20th 2023, runs to 304 pages and will be available in hardback, digitally and in audiobook form.

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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17 comments on “Haas boss Steiner pens book covering team’s tumultuous 2022 season”

  1. I do hope he’s got the time to do the audio version himself. Hearing somebody else read his profanity infused sentences just wouldn’t be the same!

    1. Amen to that.

    2. Generally, with autobiographies etc and such like, they do try to get the author to read it themselves so here’s hoping there will be an audiobook.

  2. Of course he’s named his book after the show that made him famous.

    Feels like a marketing ploy.

    1. I mean, obviously he’s not publishing a book and selling it for charity.

    2. It is very improbable that the title is Gunther’s. Generally the author proposes a title, the editor thrashes it and replaces it with something “that will sell”. That is, even when there is no ghost writer involved, which would be quite surprising in that case.

    3. “pens” and “writes” aren’t necessarily the same thing…
      Ideal gift for a Drivel to Survival fan to read (with their lips moving) before the next Nutfux series.

  3. Presumably next we will have Gunther’s Greatest love songs CD, the t-shirts, hats, appearance on I’m a celebrity…, after shave and the branded gin.

    1. The last two are the same thing. Don’t tell anyone

      1. There are so many people east of, say, Germany who don’t think it’s a joke

  4. Constantijn Blondel
    1st December 2022, 15:13

    That’s some fast writing …

    1. Not really. It’s still four and a half months until it’s published, and it’s sourced from his diaries so it’s probably down to editing and adding perspective.

  5. … OK …

    Ahm, right. Sure.

    Not sure what to think of this. Obviously the diary is kept by him, and who knows he might be even actively working with a writer to make that into a prose product that is good to read.

    Will probably be interesting to see how much he left out there to avoid any conflicst with ex drivers, their fathers, uncles, lawyers etc, as well as current team members the team boss and others!

  6. These books are imo only worth it if you can find them for free on some website, then they can be interesting, but not for money.

  7. The man is a walking meme by now…

  8. i’d pay 12 € for this. the cover photo is hilarious. he looks like a badass…!

  9. Interesting, so I’m looking forward to reading his book.

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