The Secret Business of F1 ft. Guenther Steiner | Ep. 080 Lemonade Stand 🍋

September 16, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In the first season of Drive to Survive, Netflix’s behind-the-scenes Formula One documentary, Guenther Steiner—then team principal of the smallest team on the grid—became an unlikely global star. But he never watched a single episode. “I hate to watch myself on TV or listen to myself,” Steiner explains. “If you watch yourself and you see something you don’t like, what I would try to do is next time to actually act. And then it becomes a job to be filmed. I’m not an actor.” That refusal to perform for the cameras, combined with a career spent building teams from scratch, makes Steiner a rare guide to the business realities hidden beneath F1’s glamour. Now the CEO and co-owner of a MotoGP team, he sat down to explain how the sport actually works—and what most fans get wrong.

How F1 Got Bigger (and Why It Wasn’t Just the Show)

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Episode Introduction & Guest Welcome** - The hosts welcome Guenther Steiner, CEO/owner of a MotoGP team and former Haas F1 Team Principal, and set the agenda for the conversation covering *Drive to Survive*, the business of F1, and his career.
2 (03:24) **The Pre- vs. Post-Liberty Media F1 Landscape** - Steiner explains the massive shift when Liberty Media bought F1 from Bernie Ecclestone, moving from a comfortable monopoly to an aggressive growth strategy focused on the US market and new audiences.
3 (05:40) **The Perfect Storm: COVID, *Drive to Survive*, and F1's Explosion** - How the pandemic lockdowns and the Netflix series combined to create a global audience for F1, with Steiner noting that even Liberty didn't fully expect the magnitude of the success.
4 (08:58) **The "Un-Watched" Show: Steiner’s Strategy for *Drive to Survive*** - Steiner explains his deliberate choice to never watch the show to avoid performing for the cameras, and the initial fear and skepticism from the paddock before the show became a hit.
5 (14:36) **Competing as a David Against Goliaths** - The core strategy for the underdog Haas team: buying as many parts from Ferrari as regulations allowed to save time and money, focusing internal resources solely on aerodynamics.
6 (17:57) **The Ferrari Partnership: Why a Competitor Helps** - Steiner details the mutual value of the Ferrari supply deal (money, data, league health) and why the idea of Ferrari selling "slightly worse" parts is a myth.
7 (20:50) **The Budget Cap and the "Unfair" Advantage of Success** - Explaining why the budget cap hasn’t fully leveled the playing field: top teams have better infrastructure, processes, and talent, creating a cycle where last-place teams can't attract the investment needed to catch up.

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Show Notes

On this week's show... Aidan trail-brakes into the corner, DougDoug hits the apex, and Atrioc counter-steers out of the exit. With special guest, Guenther Steiner, Co-Owner of the Tech3 MotoGP team and former Haas F1 Team Principal.

Red Flags Podcast Live Show - Austin Grand Prix on October 24th

https://www.axs.com/events/1588622/grand-prixview-live-with-guenther-steiner-the-red-flags-podcast-tickets

The Red Flags Podcast

https://youtube.com/@theredflagspod?si=9Xpg1qwdTxl6Ww3K

We launched a Patreon! - https://www.patreon.com/lemonadestand for bonus episodes, discord access, a book club, and many more ways to interact with the show!

Episode: 080

Recorded on: September 15th, 2026

Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCurXaZAZPKtl8EgH1ymuZgg

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The C-suite

Aiden - https://x.com/aidencalvin

Atrioc - https://x.com/Atrioc

DougDoug - https://x.com/DougDougFood

Edited by Aedish - https://x.com/aedishedits

Thumbnail by Cheyenne DeWolf - https://x.com/cheyedewolf

Produced by Perry - https://x.com/perry_jh

Segments

0:00 Intro 1:49 Drive to Survive Effect 14:13 Dealing with Smaller Budgets 17:10 Buying Parts from Your Competition 19:31 Engineering and Balancing Competition 26:05 Priority for a Mid-field Team 29:41 Shopify Ad 30:57 How Important is the Driver? 35:10 Getting Sponsors 39:31 Capital Groups in Sports46:15 MotoGP52:11 Sport Vs Money 55:23 Differences in Motorsports 58:00 Why Motorsport? 59:45 Guenther’s Start in Motorsports 1:05:13 Do You Plan On Slowing down? 1:08:15 The Logistics of F1 1:13:30 Managing when people fail 1:19:30 Dealing with Low Points 1:22:20 What's Next?

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