"People want constant entertainment": Haas team principal's caveat for the pre-race show at the 2023 F1 Miami GP
Guenther Steiner, Haas team principal, recently suggested the pre-race entertainment show at the Miami GP has become an essential part of the sport and that other circuits should live up to it, unlike in the old days.
He mentioned that the audience is not focused completely on racing nowadays, and, according to him, the biggest example is the entry of Liberty Media into the sport. He added that they also made the sport fairly popular in the US.
"I think entertainment here got a lot better from the old days," Steiner said. "In the old days, we went racing, cookie-cutter racing. We do one race, we do the next one, we do nothing around it. We went racing for the motorsport fan."
"The sport, before Liberty Media came in, was not successful in the US. I came to the US and I understood the US more when I moved here because I didn't understand it before," he added.
The Miami Grand Prix saw a lot of pre-race entertainment shows, which were criticized by some because they are not a part of motorsport or racing. However, Haas boss feels that the people of the country are attracted by these things, and hence, an important aspect of Formula 1 now.
"But you need to live here to understand," Steiner said. "People want constant entertainment, not just sitting out there waiting three hours until the next time the cars go out. They want something to do, something to consume."
Guenther Steiner positive about Haas becoming a winning team sometime later
Haas has been on the grid since 2016, and unlike many new teams, they were able to finish in the points in the first very race with Romain Grosjean. However, their performance hasn't got quite better since. They have hardly been a mid-field team, and winning a race is still out of their reach, and perhaps a dream for them.
However, this performance does not break Steiner's optimism, as PlanetF1 quoted him. He is still very much positive that Haas will become one of the teams to win on the grid at some time later.
"The present objective this year is to move up in the Constructors’ Championship from last year, getting better every year – it’s as simple as this – and at some stage, we want to be winning races," Steiner said. "I don’t know how far away it is and I’m not going to say it’s this season or next season, but at some stage, it will happen with Haas."