EXCLUSIVE: Guenther Steiner leaves two major names out of his F1 ‘Mount Rushmore’

They say in Formula 1 that rain is the great equalizer; and with the Brazilian Grand Prix upcoming in Sao Paulo, Max Verstappen will be licking his lips at the prospect of a hectic race.

Former Haas boss, Guenther Steiner, is a huge fan of the four-time World Champion, comparing the Dutch driver to Michael Schumacher in a recent conversation with casino.org.

When asked to name his Formula 1 ‘Mount Rushmore’; the four greatest drivers of all time, the 60-year-old star of ‘Drive to Survive’ surprisingly left out both Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton.

He explained: “As legends go, I would put Juan Manuel Fangio up there, he was the first great in Formula One.

“Niki Lauda also makes it. Ayrton Senna, I never worked with the guy, but he’s one of the great ones.

“The fourth one is the biggest struggle, there are so many candidates there.

“You know that you’ve got such a choice. I would probably put Max up there, from the new generation.

“Balance-wise, he’s like Schumacher. That’s why I would put him up there because he’s in this new generation of Formula One drivers.”

*Former Haas Team Principal, Guenther Steiner, watches on (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Steiner was also asked about the next batch of Formula 1 drivers; with the F1 Academy led by Susie Wolff aiming to produce a female driver one day.

When asked if he can see such an event in the near future, he said:

“In this exact moment, no. I think we need to wait a little bit longer.

“There will be somebody, but you need to give it at least three to five years. What the F1 academy is doing, I think it’s very good.

“The talent pool needs to get bigger and the talent pool starts in go karting. Right now, there aren’t enough women going into go karting, where you can find the talent.

“It’s so difficult to compare a talent pool of a few hundred women with a talent pool of 100,000 male drivers; it’s purely at this stage because one pool is so much bigger than the other.

“I think we will get somebody in the coming years from the F1 Academy and we’ll see more young women launching careers in the sport, hopefully as drivers.”

Fair use

Feel free to use the quotes on this page for non-commercial purposes. Please be sure to include proper attribution by linking back to this page to give credit to the authors.