F1's Guenther Steiner: I grew up in the mountains of Italy where there was no motorsport, now it's been my career for nearly 40 years

There was no motorsport in the mountains of north Italy where Steiner grew up, but as a child, he became fascinated by racing cars. “Every year, I always asked my father, to go to the one race in the region, which was about 40k from home and we went.

“After I had completed National Service, and was studying engineering, I saw a job in a racing magazine advertising for a Belgian rally team – I got that job, moved to Belgium and it all went from there.

“I was in rallying for about 15 years – quite a long time, when one day, I got a call from Niki Lauda, who was my childhood hero. His office called me and asked me to speak to him, and he offered me a job with Jaguar. I didn’t have plans to move to F1, but how do you say no.”

After 18 months there, Steiner went to work for DTM German racing series and later went to the US to work on Red Bull’s Nascar. “I loved life in the States and came up with the idea to find an investor for an F1 team and started my own team with Haas,” he says.

At Haas, Steiner began to feature on the Netflix series Formula 1: Drive to Survive, a show giving a behind-the-scenes look at the drivers and races. "It’s brought a huge new audience to the sport – in particular young people, which is what every sport is aiming for, and female interest has increased too. F1 was very much a middle-aged white man’s place for viewers. The show has opened the sport to a lot more people.

"When the show first came out, there were people talking about my role in it. I know how I am, but I didn’t expect they would show me how I am… I thought they would take out the bad pieces. So, to avoid any debate of whether I’m good or bad, or what the perception is of me, I avoid watching it.”

As for what to expect from his live show, “My career goes back nearly 40 years, so there are a lot of stories to share about how I got to where I am,” he says, “how I got into motorsport, setting up Haas F1 and what I am looking forward to now and in the future. I hope the show gives people a different perspective of how the world of motorsport and F1 works – and that it’s an interesting evening learning about the sport and about me.”

Unfiltered Live is at Leeds Grand Theatre on July 16.