Formula 1 fans will be rushing to the shops later this week, as Haas team principal Guenther Steiner’s book is set to hit the shelves.
‘Surviving To Drive’ reportedly starts with Steiner’s view on the 2021 season finale, according to Mirror Sport, who have read the book early.
The 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was, of course, a highly dramatic and controversial race, which concluded with Max Verstappen winning the Drivers’ Championship.
It was on that day that former F1 race director Michael Masi made multiple ‘human errors’, which effectively saw Lewis Hamilton lose an unprecedented eighth world title.
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It was certainly an incident which grabbed the attention of every single team, even though, it was just Red Bull and Mercedes involved.
Steiner states in his book that he found the entire situation “very confusing” but that ultimately the sport has to just “move on”, with Mercedes having opted against protesting the result.
“If I had a dollar from every person who has asked for my opinion on what happened between Lewis and Max in Abu Dhabi over the past six days, I’d be able to poach Adrian Newey!” Steiner jokes in his book.
“Not that I would. He’s far too exciting for me.
“After the race I had a few days visiting my mother and every person I saw in the town wanted to know what I thought. ‘Why are you asking me?’ I said. ‘I was too busy concentrating on a Russian who didn’t finish the race and a German who was in fourteenth position’.
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“What do I think, then? Well, it was certainly very confusing. I remember sitting on the pit wall listening to the orders from the race director and thinking, ‘What the hell is happening here?’
“At the time it didn’t stack up to me, but at the same time I didn’t know all the facts. It was very entertaining, though. Poor Toto [Wolff, Mercedes team principal] almost had a f***ing heart attack!
“Look, at the end of the day, both teams have won a world championship and good for them. Red Bull won the drivers’ and Mercedes the constructors’. I’d take either of those. Mercedes didn’t protest, so off we go. We move on.”