Abstract: Producing a hardened steel product can comprise providing a steel substrate of a hardenable steel; coating the steel substrate with an aluminum precoating, wherein the precoating is applied to the steel substrate with a thickness of at least 34 ?m; flexible rolling the pre-coated steel substrate to produce a variable thickness along the length of the precoated steel substrate, wherein the precoating is rolled out to a reduced first thickness of less than 33 ?m in thinner first portions and to a reduced second thickness thicker than the reduced first thickness in thicker second portions; working out a blank from the flexibly rolled steel substrate; heating the blank to austenitizing temperature, wherein diffusion processes take place between the base material and the precoating; and hot forming the heated blank, wherein the heated blank is formed and rapidly cooled such that a hardened steel product with coating is produced.