What Is Guenther Steiner's Net Worth and Salary?
Guenther Steiner is an Italian-American motorsport engineer who has a net worth of $6 million. Guenther Steiner formerly managed the Prodrive Allstar Rally team, and he was a project manager and director of engineering for M-Sport. From 2001 to 2003, Steiner was Jaguar Racing's managing director, and after Jaguar Racing was purchased by Red Bull, he served as Red Bull Racing's technical operations director. From 2016 to 2023, he was Haas Formula One's Team Principal. He published the book "Surviving to Drive: A year inside Formula 1" in 2023, and he wrote the forward to the 2022 book "Formula One: The Pinnacle: The pivotal events that made F1 the greatest motorsport series." He also appeared on the Netflix series "Formula 1: Drive to Survive" (2019–2023). In early 2024, the German television channel RTL hired Guenther as a specialist commentator.
Early Life
Guenther Steiner was born on April 7, 1965, in Merano, South Tyrol, Italy. His father was a butcher. In a 2016 interview with F1i.com, Guenther said of his youth, "Where I come from, motor sport is forbidden now, but back then there were hillclimbs at Mengolah and Bondone. I used to beg my father to take me there to watch. Then after my Military Service I went to Belgium to work for Mazda Rally in Europe." Steiner originally studied engineering, but he left school before earning his degree. After moving to Belgium, he worked as a mechanic for Mazda Rally Team Europe in the World Rally Championship from 1986 to 1988.
Career
In January 1989, Guenther began working for Top Run Srl as an assistant team manager. He stayed in that job until 1991, then he worked at Jolly Club as head of reconnaissance and a technical manager. After leaving that job in 1996, he became the manager of the Prodrive Allstar Rally team, which won the 1997 European Rally Championship. In 1998, the motorsport engineering company M-Sport hired Steiner as a project manager, and the company promoted him to director of engineering in 2000. As the director of engineering, Guenther worked with the Ford World Rally Team, which finished in second place during the 2000 and 2001 seasons. In 2001, Jaguar Racing, Ford's Formula One team, appointed him to be its team principal. When Jaguar Racing manager Niki Lauda announced Steiner's hiring, he said that Guenther would be "primarily responsible for managing the Milton Keynes factory and applying his skills to the technical side of our business." During his time with Jaguar Racing, Steiner reduced costs and reorganized the team. Jaguar Racing underperformed during the 2002 season, and Ford fired dozens of employees later that year. The company replaced Guenther with project manager David Pitchforth, and though they offered him another position, he declined. In November 2003, Steiner became the technical director at Germany's Opel Performance Center.
(Photo by Dan Istitene – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)
In 2004, Jaguar Racing was purchased by Red Bull, and Red Bull Racing offered Guenther a job as technical operations director. Working with team principal Christian Horner, Steiner helped lead the team to improved results in 2005, but after Red Bull convinced Adrian Newey, a technical director who had designed championship-winning cars, to leave McLaren to come work for them, Red Bull Racing owner Dietrich Mateschitz asked Guenther to help put together a NASCAR team in the U.S. Steiner subsequently moved to Mooresville, North Carolina, where he was the technical director of Team Red Bull from 2006 to 2008. After he left Red Bull, Guenther founded Fibreworks Composites, a Mooresville-based manufacturing company, in early 2009. In 2014, he became the team principal of the Haas F1 Team, the first U.S. constructor to compete in Formula One in three decades. While working for Gene Haas, Steiner appeared in 20 episodes of Netflix's "Formula 1: Drive to Survive." In early 2024, it was announced that Haas opted not to renew Guenther's contract, and a few weeks later, German television channel RTL hired him to be a specialist commentator. Subsequent to his departure, Guenther was replaced by Ayao Komatsu.
Personal Life & Real Estate
Guenther's wife is named Gertraud, and the couple has a daughter. Steiner speaks Italian, English, and German, and he holds both Italian and American passports.
In November 2006, Guenther paid $1.825 million for a waterfront home in Mooresville, South Carolina. Today this home is worth $4-5 million.
