It’s almost two years since the FIA gave the go-ahead for the Haas F1 Team to join the grid for the 2015 season, only for the outfit to decide not to race until 2016.
Now the team are all but ready to begin their Formula One careers, making them the newest constructors since HRT, Lotus and Manor joined the sport back in 2010. They’re also due to become the first American team since Lola Haas, which has no relation, that raced in 1985 and 1986.
Team Background
The team was founded by Stewart-Haas NASCAR team co-owner Gene Haas in April 2014, and is currently based in Kannapolis, North Carolina.
It also has a base in England, after it took over from Manor-Marussia’s old Branbury base, when it was auctioned off during the 2014 season.
The team currently has just 200 people working for them, albeit with outside help from Ferrari, and has named former Technical Operations Director for Red Bull, Guenther Steiner as their team principal, who has over 30 years of experience in motorsport.
Ferrari Relations
The team announced it would be running the Ferrari power unit back in September 2015, and has even been given access to some of the Italian team’s facilities such as their wind tunnel.
Haas F1 are effectively Ferrari’s second team, and Gene Haas said himself that he was “proud to be a ‘B’ team to Ferrari.” However, Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has reiterated that Ferrari and Haas are just technical partners, and nothing more should be read into it.
It’s not completely known how the team relations will show on track, will the Haas cars be moving out of the way for the Ferrari cars? Or will they be putting up more of a fight against their big sister team?
The Drivers
The Ferrari relations also looked to have had some effect on the driver choice for 2016, with Ferrari test driver Esteban Gutierrez joining the Haas outfit alongside Romain Grosjean.
Romain Grosjean has long expressed his desire to join a top team, particularly Ferrari, and although he admits joining Haas “is a risk” this could be his chance to impress the Prancing Horse boss and earn himself a drive for the Italian outfit.
Grosjean, who has been racing at Lotus since 2012, will provide valuable experience to the team, and has also proven to be amongst the quickest drivers on the grid. On the other hand, Gutierrez is thought to be more of a pay driver, after disappointing during his short time in F1.
The test driver is still yet to be announced but it’s thought that Haas will want to bring in more experience rather than looking at a rookie driver.
Expectations
Unlike the Manor outfit, which still struggle at the back of the grid, Haas look more likely to get in amongst the midfield runners, and should be able to pick up the odd point in their first year.
Obviously it’s still unknown as to how good the car actually is, but the year of preparation and outside help puts them in a much stronger position going into 2016.
When Haas was asked about his expectations he said: “The first five years is just surviving, I’m not expecting to beat anybody, just maybe beat the guys at the back.”
It isn’t going to be long before we found out for sure just where the Haas car sits in the pecking order.
