Haas - American team in F1

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FW17
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Re: Haas - American team in F1

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Gene Haas has revealed that he turned down the opportunity to invest in the ill-fated US F1 team which was due to make its Formula One début in 2010.

Despite attracting interest from billionaire YouTube founder Chad Hurley, US F1 failed to secure sufficient funding to take up its F1 grid slot. It had several links to Haas and was due to use the Windshear windtunnel owned by his machine tool manufacturing firm Haas Automation. In addition, US F1’s team principal Ken Anderson was the former technical director of the NASCAR team owned by Haas. However, until now it had not come to light that Haas had been asked to invest in US F1.

“I had known Ken Anderson for a while and he introduced me to his US F1 project,” Mr Haas told Forbes. “I saw a little bit of it with that YouTube person Chad Hurley who was pretty enthusiastic about it and was trying to get me involved but I was saying that it’s not something I’m really interested in.”

Mr Haas is now in the process of launching his own F1 team which will be known as Haas Formula and will have a European satellite office with its headquarters in North Carolina where US F1 was due to be located. He changed his mind about getting involved with F1 after an approach to him and Joe Custer, the executive vice president of his NASCAR team, from former Red Bull Racing technical director Guenther Steiner. Mr Haas says that Mr Steiner told him about new F1 regulations due to come into force next year which will allow teams to be customers of more established marques and buy a greater list of parts from them which reduces start-up costs.

“Maybe a year after talking to Ken Anderson Guenther kind of approached Joe Custer and myself and he said ‘hey would you guys be interested in doing a customer type deal?’ He was saying we could do this for a very reasonable price and that discussion went on for a while back and forth. I started watching the races more out of curiosity about it.”

Mr Haas adds “I was kind of amazed that there weren’t more people trying to do it. There are so many super rich people in America I kind of thought ‘why haven’t any other Americans done this?’ There’s a lot of interest but nobody seems to want to sit round the table and do it.”

He has had an active role in motorsport for decades and says he “was even in racing back in the 70s and 80s. I knew a lot about CART and even started in Formula 5000. I was a mechanic for a team at the Long Beach Grand Prix and used to work for a guy in High School to make local sports cars for Willow Springs and Hollywood. We used to go to Riverside Raceway and a lot of those tracks that no longer even exist.”

Last month Forbes revealed that Mr Haas will launch his F1 team in 2016 and, crucially, he has won over F1’s chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

In December Jean Todt, president of F1’s governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), opened the tender for the 12th team to join the series and in January Mr Haas announced that he had made an application. Soon afterwards Mr Ecclestone said that “they have been talking about it for three years. Two or three people there. I would say it is most unlikely.” However, since then Mr Haas has proved that he has got what it takes.

Mr Ecclestone told Forbes in the paddock at this month’s British Grand Prix that he has “said to Todt ‘you must see how honest they are. Tell Haas to put a deposit down’ and apparently they have.”

The next step is for Mr Haas to decide which engine supplier to use. Although a deal has yet to be signed, Haas Automation recently aligned itself with Ferrari in a sponsorship which began at the British Grand Prix earlier this month.

It suggests that the talks between the two companies are going well and Ferrari team boss Marco Mattiacci said “over the past few months, we have been exploring with Haas a number of potential areas of collaboration, and this agreement is an immediate opportunity that we are pursuing, which proves Haas’ interest in Formula 1.

“Haas is committed to entering Formula 1 with its own team, a testimony to the growing appeal of our sport in the USA and on this front, technical discussions are ongoing between us.”

Mr Haas added that “Haas Automation is a premium brand, and there’s no better way to drive that point home than to connect it with Scuderia Ferrari on motor racing’s biggest stage.”

If Haas Formula signs a deal with Ferrari the remaining key question will be where the team locates its European satellite office. Mr Haas says that the most likely location is England where 8 of the 11 teams are based in a cluster called Motorsport Valley.

However, he adds “we are not going to be swayed by any smooth talking about dreams. This is a tough business and we know what we have got to do. It is hiring the right people to execute and there is a lot of learning. There is a tremendous amount that we need to learn from this whole sport because we are pretty novice at it.”
Sad that they are banking on customer cars which is never going to happen.

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FW17
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Re: Haas - American team in F1

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Gene Haas has revealed .....
Sad that they are banking on customer cars which is never going to happen.

Guenther Steiner has got it all wrong.

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dren
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Rossi bailed out of Caterham. Perhaps setting himself up for a HAAS drive?
Honda!

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Kiril Varbanov
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dren wrote:Rossi bailed out of Caterham. Perhaps setting himself up for a HAAS drive?
Nope, Campos Racing in GP2. At least for Germany.

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Racer X
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HAAS is making good allies Ferrari and Bernie.
I can see them producing a car that can keep up with Caterham and Marrusia right away with out any flaws like the HRT..... that was a disaster.
RedBull Racing Checo//PEREZ

aral
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Racer X wrote:HAAS is making good allies Ferrari and Bernie.
I can see them producing a car that can keep up with Caterham and Marrusia right away with out any flaws like the HRT..... that was a disaster.
On what basis?

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Pierce89
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gilgen wrote:
Racer X wrote:HAAS is making good allies Ferrari and Bernie.
I can see them producing a car that can keep up with Caterham and Marrusia right away with out any flaws like the HRT..... that was a disaster.
On what basis?
On the basis that Haas knows exactly what he's doing and he will have a lot of tech support from Ferrari. @Williamsf1: Steiner wasn't talking about customer cars. There's a long list of parts you no longer need to own the IP for.
“To be able to actually make something is awfully nice”
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“I've got to be careful what I say, but possibly to probably Juan would have had a bigger go”
Sir Frank Williams after the 2003 Canadian GP, where Ralf hesitated to pass brother M. Schumacher

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FW17
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Re: Haas - American team in F1

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Pierce89 wrote:
gilgen wrote:
Racer X wrote:HAAS is making good allies Ferrari and Bernie.
I can see them producing a car that can keep up with Caterham and Marrusia right away with out any flaws like the HRT..... that was a disaster.
On what basis?
On the basis that Haas knows exactly what he's doing and he will have a lot of tech support from Ferrari. @Williamsf1: Steiner wasn't talking about customer cars. There's a long list of parts you no longer need to own the IP for.

That was speculation and some discussion, nothing has been made into regulation.

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Racer X
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On the basis of HAAS sponsoring Ferrai early and they can probably get alot more help from them then your average customer team such as Sauber it will probably be something alot more like the deal that McLaren used to have with Mercedez and alot less like the deal say Force India has. They wont be a works team but they will have alot of aid much more like The situation at Toro Rosso and RedBull they wont build their car for them or really design anything but parts. Im sure they can get the best parts out of them. Besides it doesnt hurt to have Ferrari as consultants.
RedBull Racing Checo//PEREZ

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Chuckjr
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If Haas is looking for exposure and to bring a larger F1 fan base in the USA, there's absolutely no better choice than Danica. Furtheore, it's their first year. Nobody, nobody expects them to win. It's a no lose for Danica and Haas. Why not use the opportunity to pull in boatloads of exposure / money despite having no chance or expectation to win? It's a great move to win where he can win. That money can all go into development of the car.

As for the degration concern...queens have ruled and garnered nations through sex. Entire empires have evolved directly through women's use of sex. Clearly they are the stronger of the two in this regard--history proves that. If nature offers you gold, invest it while you can - she will take it back regardless if you are wise with it.

As for the other USA driver, the Scott Pruitt consideration earlier was a fantastic idea. He would be outstanding for chassis feedback and a consummate gentleman to counterpoint what's going on in the other garage. these first years are first about development, not necessarily winning. Use the opportunity to get the guy who'll drive anything well and have all kinds of feedback for the engineers with no unrealistic expectations that would make him pissed off / distracted because he wasn't winning. A new young driver would be looking to win quickly with no experience to offer the team, but I think Scott would be looking first to develop the car and make the team better. He'd be stoked to get the opportunity I'm sure of that and he would not be expensive.
Watching F1 since 1986.

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Racer X
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i was looking into Rossi and i think he would be a good second driver hes been in GP2 and developed by Caterham and has driven this Generation of F1 Cars already i mean we not Develop him teams like Caterham and Marussia are supposed to Develop drivers like that anyways why not Alexander Rossi. I actually dont care who the other Driver is but i do think they could take TWO Americans one could be Rossi and the other a more famous one like who ever the hell you want from America. doesnt matter just some one famous who will fill the seats then Rossi can get that passed torch to him and care over the fan base..
RedBull Racing Checo//PEREZ

xpensive
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Re: Haas - American team in F1

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Racer X wrote:On the basis of HAAS sponsoring Ferrari early and they can probably get alot more help from them ...
That "sponsorship" looks to be rather limited, can you spot the Haas logo?

Image

There probably will never be any Haas cars in Formula 1 if you ask me, unless 3-4 teams drops out next year and MrE allows customer cars or a third car for the remaining teams, perhaps the is the Haas-Ferrari plan?
"I spent most of my money on wine and women...I wasted the rest"

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MOWOG
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Re: Haas - American team in F1

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I think I can see it in that photo, X, but it's partially hidden by a blade of grass. :twisted:
Some men go crazy; some men go slow. Some men go just where they want; some men never go.

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Re: Haas - American team in F1

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MOWOG wrote:I think I can see it in that photo, X, but it's partially hidden by a blade of grass. :twisted:
But that is not "sponsorship", more like "technical partner", together with SKF, Brembo and Magneti Marelli.

UPS and Santander are a sponsors though.

Haas is just xtremely good at getting free marketing in media, he has no intention to spend a dollar on Formula 1.
"I spent most of my money on wine and women...I wasted the rest"

marcush.
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Re: Haas - American team in F1

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Racer X wrote:On the basis of HAAS sponsoring Ferrai early and they can probably get alot more help from them then your average customer team such as Sauber it will probably be something alot more like the deal that McLaren used to have with Mercedez and alot less like the deal say Force India has. They wont be a works team but they will have alot of aid much more like The situation at Toro Rosso and RedBull they wont build their car for them or really design anything but parts. Im sure they can get the best parts out of them. Besides it doesnt hurt to have Ferrari as consultants.
Sauber is far from being an average customer Team to Ferrari-Hinwil developped a very strong relationship with Fiorano in the years before BMW took over ..Schumacher tested Saubers cars in Fiorano one day to benchmark the Ferrari and just recently Sauber had testdays with Simona de Silvestri in Fiorano ..a track privately and exclusively for Ferrari testing purposes.

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