Get your brains on for a change! Today under the new boss's orders, we are doing book reviews.
This week's book is Surviving to Drive by Gunther Steiner. Gunther, 58, born in Merano, South Tyrol, now resident of Mooresville (Race City) North Carolina, is the boss of the Haas F1 team but better known as the constantly swearing star of Drive to Survive.
Basically, the book, which is a diary of Haas's 2022 campaign, is safe for the kiddies since he uses an Italian accented version of the magic word as in the 2022 campaign had "more drama in it than a thousand episodes of a foking Mexican soap opera" and "Why the fok would someone ask me for an interview about Formula One five days before Christmas?"
STD starts on Monday, December 13, 2021, the end of the season and one Gunther had to write off. "Actually choosing to be sh.. for an entire season goes against everything we believe in; every single race weekend put the team on a downward spiral."
The sexiest parts in the 2022 season were telling Nikita Dmitryevich Mazepin, 24, the son of Dimitry Mazepin – the former largest shareholder and chairman of Uralkali, which strangely enough was the major sponsor of the Haas team – that invading the Ukraine wasn't cool and they should take the roubles and run. Then there was the blue with Mick (son of) Schumacher. Mick managed to do a bit of damage to his car – well two prangs that cost Mr Haas nearly $3m. Gunther had to nicely tell Mick to fok off.
Gunther describes himself as "an Italian wanker with a big nose, a weird accent and a German name" but he is very pragmatic. "People talk about football managers being under pressure. Trust me, that's nothing. Pressure is watching one of your drivers hit a barrier at 190mph and exploding before your eyes."
STD is a great read even if you're not too interested in F1. For whatever reason it's not available in Australia until next month. That's probably because it's published by Penguin which is not owned by our group. $25 from Amazon and Big W.
Talking of the arts and F1, Brad Pitt (brother of Arm and Cess) will star in a movie – with the Hamster consulting, Jerry Bruckheimer producing and Joseph Kosinski directing. Unnamed will be shot at Silverstone. The Hamster says his Brad Pitt movie will be the "greatest racing movie ever."
And is this the start of a North American takeover of F1? Four races in septic land this season, Las Vegas, Austin, Miami and Montreal. My bet is the F1 brains trust will add a street circuit in Manhattan next year.
In recent classic car sales Bonhams sold two of the most famous works Monte Carlo Rally cars at the Goodwood Members' Meeting. A 1999 Subaru Impreza WRC99, campaigned by the late Richard Burns, in the 2000 Rally, sold for $830k, while a 1963 Mini Cooper S, driven by Flying Finn Rauno Aaltonen, brought $270k.
jc@jcp.com.au