‘Don’t blame me’: Guenther Steiner on Formula 1’s swearing ban and being a Netflix sex symbol

The reality show has also drivenmore women to the sport. In 2023, it was reported that female attendance at the Australian Grand Prix had grown by more than half.

“It has changed a lot,” he says. “You can see it in the demographics these days. I mean, before it was middle-aged men, 90 per cent of it, at least – which is nothing wrong to be a middle-aged man, I am one of them and I’m already going to the other side, to the older people – but now you see a lot of young people and females as well. Drive to Survive for sure helped, but also the social media marketing helped a lot as well.”

What also made Steiner popular was his ability to put the “f” in Formula 1. He is forthright (“I try my best, but I cannot make a shit car into a good car”) and doesn’t hold back (“He’s going so f—ing so slow, he doesn’t need a brake”).

But under new rules to be implemented in Melbourne, drivers and team principals can now be fined for swearing.

“Don’t blame me for it, I didn’t teach these kids what to do, what to say, you know, they just know,” he says. “I think it was taken out of context, you know, taken a little bit – how you say? – making a mountain out of a molehill. I think a sport lives from emotions. Who wants to watch a sport without emotions? Even video games have emotions these days.

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“So if somebody at some stage swears, is it good? I’m not saying it’s very good, but is it bad? Not as bad as it is made out and [not so bad that teams can be] fined tens of thousands of dollars. This could have been resolved a lot more practically by sitting the drivers down and telling them, ‘Guys, tone it down a notch, don’t go over the top, and nobody will speak about it’. Now we all speak about [it] and the children, which didn’t know the f-word, they now know it.”

As for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, how does Steiner fancy local hope Oscar Piastri, the 23-year-old who races for McLaren.

“A good chance,” he says. “People say, ‘You have to take a decision’, I say it’s 50/50. I think the McLaren, following the testing in Bahrain 10 days ago, looks to be the strongest car. And I think Lando [Norris] and Oscar are very equal drivers, equal good drivers. So it’s very difficult to say who’s going to win, who’s going to be better on the day. I don’t know. But I think that, for me, the two favourites are them two.”

As for where Steiner gets his need for speed these days, it’s pretty sedate. “I drive a pick-up truck,” he says. “I live in the States, in North Carolina. I don’t want to go to jail; I follow the rules.”

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