Guenther Steiner on Tech3 MotoGP takeover: ‘Dorna told us to not f**k it up’

Former Haas Formula 1 team boss Guenther Steiner says he was told by Dorna Sports ‘not to f**k it up’ if he was serious about his Tech3 takeover, which was confirmed on Friday.

In a special press conference at the Catalan Grand Prix, current Tech3 owner Herve Poncharal announced he would be handing his team over to a consortium led by Steiner from 2026.

The move has been widely rumoured for some time, following an appearance from Steiner - formerly team boss at the Haas F1 team from 2016 to 2023 - at May’s British Grand Prix.

The deal is reported to be worth around €20 million and involves the Apex management group, as well as Richard Coleman, who will become team principal.

Steiner, who also has experience in WRC and NASCAR, says talks about entering MotoGP began in mid-April last year when he visited the Americas Grand Prix just days after Liberty Media’s acquisition of the series was announced.

As talks progressed, he revealed he was issued a friendly warning from Dorna Sports about the legacy he must uphold with the Tech3 squad.

“Once I got to Austin last year, I came up with the idea that this would be an interesting project,” Steiner said.

“I started to look around, to speak to people about what is possible. At some stage I met Herve, we got on from our first meeting.

“He says he was afraid of me, but he’s not afraid of anyone. We talked, then I had to tell Herve that the team will stay where it is, the team will continue his legacy.

“Why would I change something that works? We want to learn and want to have Herve along with us next year to get as much of his experience.

“There are not many people in this paddock with the experience of Herve. And we want to drain him basically. He will not be bored next year.

“Thanks to Herve and the Ezpeleta family, everything is in place for next year. I think we got very lucky, but we know we need to work hard to keep it as it is.

“Everyone asks what I want to do different: at the moment, nothing. I just want to learn for a year.

“And then we can see if we want to do something different. We just want to continue the success story of Tech3. It was never discussed to change name or anything.

“I would like to thank Mr Carmelo Ezpeleta and Mr Carlos Ezpeleta on this, because they actually told me ‘if we let you in - my words - don’t fuck it up, basically’.

“And that’s what I have to look out for now that we don’t get it wrong.

“But I had to promise that to Carmelo and Carlos that we continue what is there, because MotoGP is a great sport.

“Millions watch it on TV, so we need to make sure we continue the good story and make MotoGP what it deserves. We will try to help to do that.”

Liberty Media, who also owns F1, was officially confirmed as MotoGP’s owner in July following an EU probe.

But Steiner says finalising his deal to take over Tech3 was not dependent on Liberty becoming MotoGP owner.

“Yes, we started with this before Liberty was involved,” he added.

“This was not depending on Liberty or not. For us, we saw potential in this one.”