Here's My One Funny Guenther Steiner Fact
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Bad news for the producers of Drive to Survive: Famously foul-mouthed boss Guenther Steiner is out of Haas F1. Who will the show get to say on camera that one of his drivers "just fucked it up" or that his team "looks like a bunch of wankers" now? More importantly: Is Haas F1 the funniest place Steiner has worked?
After all, Haas has been an objectively silly team during his tenure. Who could forget the time it ran the colors of the Russian flag on its cars, then lost that sponsorship during the invasion of Ukraine? Or the time that it ran full-car sponsorship from a Red Bull knockoff called Rich Energy? Right off the rip, Haas has been embroiled in controversy and misfortune, and Steiner has narrated it with his trademark scowl.
Steiner is such a wonderful Eeyore, so delightfully crass and visibly angry. And that's why I laughed when I happened upon this brief note while reading up on the history of the World Rally Championship in the Nineties and Aughts on the great rallycars.com. Included in this section on the Ford Focus WRC, I didn't expect Steiner's name to pop up:
The Focus WRC shares no parts with its predecessor or with its street counterpart. Ford took profit of the fact they were designing a brand new car and started from a clean sheet. Apart from the body shell, the engine is new, the Cosworth unit has been replaced by a turbocharged version of the Ford Zetec E 16V engine, and the transmission and drivetrains are completely different compared to those of the previous car. The car was engineered by Günter Steiner. The name sounds German but Günter is Italian. His previous work was on the Lancia HF Integrale when it raced for the Italian team Jolly Club.
I'm sorry, he worked for Jolly Club? Always-frowning Guenther Steiner ran a team literally called Jolly Club?
Of course, Jolly Club is not a team named for being a fun time. It was the top Italian privateer rally team, and the top Italian rally team altogether after the days of full works-backed Lancias or Fiats had come to a close. You can see Carlos Sainz driving a Jolly Club Lancia in 1993 at the top of this article.
It doesn't mean "happy" either, as Dirtfish explains:
The Jolly Club name originally came from the ‘Joker’ in a pack of cards. Joker in that sense translates to Jolly.
RallySport Magazine adds more:
Current chief, Roberto Angiolini, son of the founder, had a passion not only to represent Lancia in world championship motor sport in 1992, but also to foster the careers of future top stars. Roberto explained a little of the background of the company. "The name Jolly was taken from the special playing card ('joker' card) which is able to do more than any other card.”
Still, it's funny. He couldn't find a job at Frown Factory?
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