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Monaco 'a race like any other' for Haas' Steiner

Monaco might be the jewel in the Formula 1 crown, but for Haas F1 team boss Guenther Steiner it's just another day at the office.

"For me, Monaco is a race like all the others. We’re there to perform and score points."

While the venue is renowned for its conspicuous wealth and Mediterranean beauty, Steiner said that the team members rarely had much opportunity to take advantage.

"I wish they could. However, they don’t usually as it’s such hard work," said Steiner. "Our guys won’t get the time to see the glitz and glamour.

Because of Monaco's unique schedule, which sees practice take place on Thursday, team members can get a chance to sightsee on the Friday.

"The guys can get half a day to go out and see a little of the town," Steiner agreed. "But usually when they’ve nothing to do they sleep, because they are tired from the work.

"There’s always the risk that the car goes in the wall and their work load goes up," he added.

"The biggest difference with Monaco is the distance between everything. You have to walk a lot," he explained. The distances between things are about 10 times further than any other Grand Prix. There’s a lot of walking, a lot of scooter driving and everything takes longer.

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"You need to plan for that because if you need something from the truck, you need to go up in the garage to get it down to the paddock. It’s definitely the most challenging one, logistically, of the year.”

Conversely, the pit lane presents the most cramped conditions that teams will see all year. "There’s no space. Everything you need to do you’ll have half the space," Steiner agreed.

The street circuit is also incredibly tight and twisting - and utterly unforgiving on driver mistakes.

"During the race it’s quite intense, because if you make even a small mistake you can be in the wall," Steiner said.

"Overtaking is difficult too, so there is more pressure on Saturday during qualifying than there’s actually on Sunday.

"By Sunday the positions are set - unless something special happens, you end up where you start. Saturday will be intense."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.