BARCELONA, Spain — When he was team principal of Formula 1‘s Haas team, Guenther Steiner would’ve done practically anything for a result. In his eight-year tenure in charge of the American outfit, he never got a taste of podium champagne.
Now, though, a fair bit more bubbly is likely headed his way.
MotoGP announced on Friday that he is fronting a group that has purchased the Red Bull KTM Tech 3 team, with a source telling ESPN that the deal values the French-based outfit at around €20 million, and he will complete his takeover and assume his role as CEO at the end of the year.
MotoGP is the two-wheeled equivalent of F1, the pinnacle of two-wheeled motorsport, known for its addicting on-track entertainment and unpredictable parity. While Marc Márquez, almost inarguably the most gifted rider in the sport’s 76-year history, is running away with this year’s championship, eleven different riders from six different teams on three different brands of motorcycle have won races in the past two-plus seasons.
“That, for me, means a lot because that’s what I was missing,” Steiner told ESPN in an exclusive interview. “In F1 … [it’s] like, ‘We cannot get to the podium’ — I mean, you can get to the podium, but every star needs to be aligned — but [in MotoGP], there is the opportunity; if we do a good job, we can get there. It’s in our own hands because the grid is more mixed up without having Balance of Performance or anything. Obviously, you need to have the rider as well, but … if he’s comfortable and confident, he can make a good result happen. That is the difference here.”
Steiner is best known for his time in F1, where he worked in various roles for Jaguar and Red Bull Racing between 2001 and 2008 before being appointed team principal of Haas ahead of its 2016 debut, but his motorsport career began in rally in the 1980s, and his racing interests span the spectrum.
He left Haas after the 2023 season, and suddenly, he found time to devote into all of those interests. Fairly immediately, he was drawn to MotoGP.
“I always wanted to go to a race, but then I got involved in all this other stuff, Formula 1, you don’t have time anymore,” Steiner said. ”And after I left Haas, I decided to go to Austin because … I know quite a few people in MotoGP and I said, ‘I need to come, I need to come,’ and then I said, ‘I go.’
“You start to remember stuff, you start to follow it more again, and there’s where I get my stupid ideas from, you know? I go somewhere and it’s actually pretty cool to do. ‘Let’s try it,’ you know? And there’s where the idea came from.”
Beyond the appeal of how competitive the grid is, the Italian-born resident of North Carolina was enamored by the mystique of the riders’ on-track heroics.
These are motorcycles that accelerate quicker and reach higher top speeds than Formula 1 cars, and reach lean angles of up to 70 degrees, riders routinely dragging their well-armored knees, elbows and even shoulders across the pavement through the corners. Steiner got some firsthand insight into what they experience every grand prix weekend, when he rode on the back of the MotoEX2 two-seat demonstrations bike, bringing another level of appreciation for the risk and the physicality that these athletes contend with.
“What these guys do with the bikes, the challenge, the danger, all this … it’s just very, very cool to watch, in my opinion,” he said. “And then last year in Austin, I was on the back of this bike, and that got my attention, I can tell you that much.
“I’ve always been around cars, I’ve been with fast drivers in fast cars — never in a double-seater F1 car, but all the other ones — yeah, it’s nice and fast, but … the last time I was scared in a car was with Colin McRae in a rally car, and I think that was the closest I got to sitting on the back of one of these bikes. It’s not the being scared, but you can see the challenge out there, you can feel it.”
Speaking over cappuccinos and cortados with sources up and down the paddock, a common refrain emerges: If we could just get this sport in front of people, it would be a hit. To use the U.S. market as an example, MotoGP’s number of fans in the country is small, but the fans the sport does have are hyper-engaged and fanatical — more so than its traditional hotbeds of Spain, Italy and Southeast Asia.
Steiner’s incoming team principal, Richard Coleman, put it best.
“These guys are rubbing shoulders at 230-odd miles an hour. They are the gladiators of the modern day,” he said. “And I really think when this sport gets to a new audience, then I really feel like the moon is possible for this sport.”
Steiner regularly emphasized his focus on his new team, his thirst for results, his definition of what success looks like for Tech 3 next year and beyond, but he also recognizes that he possesses the ability to attract a global audience because of his star turn in Netflix’s F1 docuseries “Drive To Survive.” The 60-year-old became an overnight sensation thanks to his candid, endearingly authentic and often expletive-filled discourse.
And for a series that just needs an opportunity to be seen, that holds a great deal of potential.
MotoGP is in the midst of a commercial rebirth. Attendance records have been broken at seven races this season, viewership is up “a really significant percentage” in multiple markets, according to one source, and the importance of creating original content is being embraced like never before.
And all of that was before Liberty Media, owner of F1 and whose marketing expertise is partially responsible for its explosive growth, completed its €4.2 billion takeover of Dorna Sports, the commercial rights holder of MotoGP.
“He gets the business, he understands it,” Carlos Ezpeleta, chief sporting officer for Dorna Sports, said of Steiner when asked about his potential as “Drive To Survive’s” biggest star. “Of course, his personality has helped a lot. I think some people might be offended to say that he’s the biggest character in ‘Drive to Survive’ — team principals or drivers might get offended — but I agree. He has been huge.
“You speak to a lot of the business people around Formula 1 and they say they sold out of Guenther’s merchandise. It’s great to have him on board. I think he’s going to really impact here, one, in taking it to new audiences, and two, and in having a bit of that flair and outspoken personality that’s going to be easy to connect with.”
He’s not the only personality with a global following who has spoken to MotoGP about investing in a team, either.
“We’ve been overwhelmed by the interest of people wanting to come into the sport,” Ezpeleta said. One source said the series fields a call a week from well-heeled groups curious about acquiring a stake in one of the eleven teams that make up the grid.
Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, Bolt Ventures — the family office of David Blizter, whose Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment owns the NBA‘s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL‘s New Jersey Devils — and Los Angeles Lakers legend Pau Gasol all have held discussions with MotoGP about owning a team, a source told ESPN.
The biggest stumbling block in more new investors joining the sport has been teams’ current owners being uninterested in selling. If the sport can realize its massive growth potential, those team owners’ assets stand to appreciate considerably in the years to come, making them less inclined to cash out and risk missing out on a potential boom.
Steiner now has his piece of MotoGP in Red Bull KTM Tech 3, and beyond putting riders Maverick Viñales and Enea Bastianini on the podium, he’s also going to be relied upon to help bring the series to a big, new audience. And soon, he might have some help.
