What would you do if you were in charge of Formula 1? If you’re a fan of the sport, you inevitably have a laundry list of changes you’d like to make, ones that you feel would improve the sport.

But would your changes be popular? Former Haas F1 team boss Guenther Steiner is no stranger to controversy — and his F1 wishlist is certain to raise some eyebrows.

Guenther Steiner’s two-step process for F1 success

When he was responsible for the goings-on at the Haas Formula 1 team, Guenther Steiner became something of a fan favorite.

Chalk it up to his bombastic presence in the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive: He was bold, brash, and not afraid to ruffle feathers — even if it meant going toe-to-toe with the drivers who raced for him.

Among 2024’s many motorsport bombshells was the pre-season announcement that Steiner would be leaving the Haas team, but such has been his impact that the man has remained a familiar face in the paddock.

Now, Steiner may not be making big decisions for Haas, but he’s regularly offered his perspective on the goings-on of the sport, including a recent in-depth interview with Ouest France.

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In a conversation that ranged from everything from Steiner’s start with Haas to his honest thoughts on the drivers he worked with, the former boss shared his big ideas for how to solve some key problems in F1.

“I would do two things,” Steiner told Ouest France.

“Firstly, I would add sprint races: twelve instead of the current six.”

Twelve sprint races! The very concept of the sprint has been regularly questioned by F1 fans. While many appreciate more competitive track time for F1 cars, many others feel that the sprint race can largely be a processional handful of laps, where the action is cut off just before things would get interesting in a standard Grand Prix: during pit stops.

But Steiner is one of the people who feels F1 isn’t capitalizing on this concept enough.

“I really like weekends where the competition starts on Friday with sprint qualifying, and a first race on Saturday,” he said. 

Thankfully, Steiner’s second F1 fix is one that fans are more likely to agree with.

“Regarding the race stewards, I would like them to be permanent employees, to have consistency in the penalties issued,” he said.

“Formula 1 is one of the biggest sports in the world, I don’t think it’s fair that they are not full-time employees. Football referees are full-time, and paid for it. Responsibility must be rewarded.”

The ideal role of the race steward was a regular talking point throughout the 2024 season. Should stewards talk to the media? Should they be permanent hires? Should they be paid for their work?

Currently, F1 stewards rotate each race weekend, comprised of ex-drivers and national representatives. But the fluctuation resulted in varying interpretations of the rules as well as varying penalties.

Steiner has joined the subset of folks who feel that stewards should be full-time employees — ones who have an intimate understanding of the rules and who can be trusted to enforce them fairly each weekend.

It is perhaps a much more palatable option than a season with 12 sprints!

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