Günther Steiner talks about the identity of Haas and the importance of the teams’ nationalities: According to him, the second US racing team does not change anything.
Haas will lose its unique selling point in Formula 1 from 2026. Because then they will no longer be the only American team in the field when Cadillac becomes the 11th team to enter the sport. But former team principal Günther Steiner doesn’t see it that way, because he thinks nationalities are overrated in Formula 1.
“I don’t think it really matters in Formula 1 whether a team is American, German or anything else,” says the South Tyrolean. “The sport is just so global that the nationality of a team hardly matters. Even at Haas, it didn’t make much of a difference that the team was from the U.S. and not from another country.
“The only team that is really strongly identified with a country is Ferrari,” emphasizes Steiner. ‘All the other teams? If you look at it closely, why should that matter?’ he asks, pointing to some examples in the current field.
Like many other teams, Red Bull is based in England but races under an Austrian license. “But who knows that? And above all, who cares?” says Steiner. The same applies to Mercedes, which, according to him, is hardly perceived as a German team because it is also based in England.
“It’s simply seen as a Formula One team because the sport is so global. Sponsors don’t get on board with a team because it comes from a certain country,“ he says.
”Red Bull is a team based in the UK, with an Austrian license and a major American sponsor, Oracle. It just shows: companies that invest heavily in Formula One don’t care about nationality. They want to spread their message globally, and Formula One gives them exactly that stage.“
”That’s why I think that nationality in Formula One – apart from Ferrari – hardly plays a role. Ferrari is the exception because it is actually the Italian national team.”
US driver never an option for Haas
Cadillac, however, could strengthen its American credentials by putting an American driver in the car. IndyCar driver Colton Herta is considered the hottest candidate and has already been named by Mario Andretti as the top choice. This would be a step in a direction that has been talked about at Haas time and again, but never implemented.
But for Steiner, the rumors only came from outside, for Haas himself it was “never an issue,” as he emphasizes. “At the time, I don’t think many people had a super license. And besides, we always thought that it’s not good to put a young team together with a rookie driver who is not used to Formula 1 racing.”
“That can’t be good for either of them, because if the driver isn’t successful, you kill his career. And if the driver gets angry at the team, that’s not good for the team either,” says Steiner.
In addition, at the beginning of Haas’s Formula One career, there was no real interest in the USA. “There was no one who could really get into the team and take over a car,” he says, and he believes that this is still the case today.
“There are a few now, but if it’s not successful for an American driver to race in Formula 1, then in my opinion there are no big advantages to it,” he says, and sees Logan Sargeant as a good example. The American drove for Williams for a year and a half in 2023 and 2024, but only scored one point and was kicked out in the summer.
“Many people didn’t even know he was American, especially not in America,” says the ex-team boss.
Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t
Steiner himself is no longer responsible for a Formula One team, but his opinion regarding an eleventh racing team has not changed as a result: “I always thought that there was a cake that we had to share with ten teams,” he says.
“If an 11th team joins and also wants a piece of the cake, the pieces will get smaller – unless the cake gets bigger. If the cake has gotten bigger, then that was always the goal of Formula One management: to ensure that the existing teams do not suffer as a result.”
Steiner himself does not know the current figures, why Cadillac was accepted after a tough struggle, because he was not involved in the negotiations. “The teams were never directly involved in the negotiations, but I no longer have access to this information,” said the Italian.
But as a manufacturer project, Cadillac could now bring more to the sport than a privateer like Andretti, he believes. “Hopefully they will bring a lot of new money with them. In my opinion, they have understood this and have now made the cake bigger so that the pieces remain the same size, even if there are now eleven instead of ten,“ says Steiner.
“In the end, if the ten existing teams that have been around for a long time are respected and get the same as before, why not?”
