My Life in Cars: Guenther Steiner

Where I come from in South Tyrol, which is northern Italy just on the border with Austria and in the Dolomites basically, there is no racing going on. My family had no history in cars or anything either, but I found motorsport through TV. So then I begged my father every year to take me to the one hill climb that happened in our area. At the time my parents drove a Fiat 124 and I’d always get car sick driving through the mountains. 

My father had a Vespa then too, and I’ve still got that now actually. I had it restored a few years ago.

After I passed my test my first car was a Fiat 500, the original of course. I had no money, so the only thing I could afford was this Fiat and it was like freedom on wheels. I did an apprenticeship as a mechanic so I could fix it up myself, but I was never into tuning or modifying cars. 

After I’d done my National Service in Italy I moved to Belgium to start my career with racing cars. I had an Alfa Romeo Giulietta at the time – the square one from the late 1970s and early 80s – which I actually still own. My father gave it to me and now that he’s passed away, I’ll never sell it. 

After that I had an Alfa Romeo Spider. I wish I still owned that. Then I moved to the UK and was in company cars for a long time. So, when I was at Prodrive I had a Subaru Impreza, and then when I moved to M Sport I had the weirdest cars ever – everything from a Ford Scorpio to a Ford Cougar coupe and a seven-seat first-generation Ford Galaxy with the big 2.8-litre VR6 Volkswagen engine in it. 

Then I moved to Jaguar and had XKR coupes as company cars, before I eventually bought myself a 997-generation Porsche 911. That was probably my favourite car I’ve owned, but I haven’t had a Porsche since because I don’t have time to really enjoy a car at the moment.

I moved to the United States 16 years ago, and ever since then I’ve run around in pickup trucks. Toyota Tundras in fact. Always Toyota Tundras. I’m a big fan now. They’re reliable, comfortable and big – you know, when I came to the States the Tundra was bigger than my living room in the UK. You could probably fit my old Fiat 500 inside one. 

I always prefer to drive myself and never like being driven. Even on F1 race weekends I drive around myself because then I don’t have to wait for anybody or have anyone waiting for me. At Haas we have no association with a manufacturer so I’m just in normal rental cars. That means I’ve driven a lot of cars in my time. A lot of good cars, but also a lot of really bad cars. 

I don’t race though. I never have. I mean obviously in the rally days I drove the cars because they were road legal and you had to drive them to transport them, but I never had the money to get into racing originally and I don’t think I’ve got the talent. I’d just get it wrong and there would be a lot of people waiting for me to make mistakes because I’ve criticised a lot of drivers over the years. The last thing I want to do is put myself out there. Avoid disappointment.

Guenther’s dream three-car garage

Toyota Tundra
Honestly, I would want a big truck like a Tundra just as a commodity

Ferrari 288 GTO
I always loved the 288 GTO. I don’t know why but I just think it’s so cool

Lamborghini Aventador
As a modern supercar I love the Aventador. Big V12 engine, sharp styling. Perfect