Five years ago this March, the outbreak of the Corona pandemic: For ex-team principal Günther Steiner, its consequences had an impact on a current Formula 1 trend
It’s something like the Silicon Valley of Formula 1: in the catchment area of the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, most teams either have their headquarters or at least a branch office: from Aston Martin to Mercedes, from Williams to Red Bull, geographically most of the racing teams are now close together.
Most recently, the Racing Bulls also moved their England factory closer to the large Red Bull plant in Milton Keynes – and even newcomer Cadillac has set up part of the team in Silverstone, formerly under the name Andretti. However, many different locations also bring with them special challenges…
Ex-team principal Günther Steiner can tell you a thing or two about that – at Haas, the South Tyrolean was also responsible for a site in Banbury, not far from Silverstone: “Maybe we were ahead of our time when we did the same at Haas back then,” Steiner looks back favorably on the structure at his former racing team in his role as ambassador for the Miami Grand Prix.
Steiner reflects: “A completely different world”
Although he points out: “We didn’t have many alternatives back then and simply chose the best way forward. When you think about how our communication has changed over the last ten or twenty years, it’s clear that technology has made a lot of things easier,” says Steiner.
“In the past, everything was done over the phone, but now we are connected and see each other – it was a completely different world back then. During the Covid pandemic, many worked from home, and a central headquarters was often not necessary,” said the 59-year-old, who believes that this realization during Corona has permanently changed the approach for the coming years: ‘Teams are now using these developments to structure themselves optimally and attract the best talent.’
Just like the newcomers from Cadillac, Audi or the Racing Bulls. Steiner points out that “such decisions are often necessary to keep the business running, because the industry is extremely complex. You could say that Racing Bulls should move everything to the UK, but then they would lose not only valuable skilled workers but also an established infrastructure.”
Ultimately, the team’s headquarters will remain in Faenza, Italy. Steiner: “So you have to strike a balance – which is exactly what Sauber and Audi are currently doing. They say: ‘We have an excellent wind tunnel in Switzerland and a strong team on the ground, but it’s difficult to get more qualified personnel there.’ The solution? An additional branch in the UK.”
Haas as a pioneer: “We proved that it works”
Seen in this light, Steiner definitely sees himself and his Haas team as pioneers: “Our biggest challenge back then was the technology. Video conferencing systems were not yet sophisticated and not always reliable. That was the biggest problem. Many thought it was impossible to coordinate a team via video calls, but we proved that it works,” says the South Tyrolean.
For him, however, it has always been more “a question of commitment” to “make the collaboration successful. For us, this way of working was a matter of course from the very beginning, because the team was designed from the ground up to work this way. We didn’t have to adjust.”
Teams that are only now changing their structure “and employees who have worked differently for years have to get used to new processes,” would therefore now have a more difficult time, judges Steiner: “Such changes require conscious efforts to keep the team structure intact.” So that everything works with two or more locations…
