Haas wants even closer co-operation with Ferrari

Gene Haas has said more co-operation from Ferrari would be helpful as the American team struggles to understand their car and the components Ferrari has supplied them with.

Ferrari has been cautiously following the FIA regulations with Haas F1 considered almost a customer team of Maranello.

Haas says has made the Italians hesitant to work with his team: “The model does work really well with Ferrari,” he told Autosport. “If anything I hope we can get more out of it too.

“There’s always been some hesitation on Ferrari’s part, as far as working with us, because of the FIA regulations.

“So they’ve been very, very careful to be sure they follow everything by the rules.”

Haas said Ferrari’s ‘religious’ following of the rules is frustrating and limiting what his team has achieved so far this season.

Developing the car hasn’t been easy. Though the Haas shares a lot of the same components as used on the SF16-T, how the personnel at Banbury use them and gain their understanding of the final car is very different.

“With Ferrari, they supply us with a lot of parts, but they don’t necessarily provide us with information about how it all works,” Haas said.

“That comes down to personnel. We started almost from ground zero and there’s so much we have had to learn ourselves, so as time goes forward we need to get personnel to really understand how the cars work.

“We can’t just go to Ferrari and ask ‘How does this work?’ We need to figure that out on our own.

“That’s probably the biggest shortcoming: just trying to understand how the Ferrari – and some of the components they give us, the shocks and suspension, ERS – how all these things work.”

It’s easy to see why Haas would want more collaboration with the Italian team, Ferrari is currently third in the championship whilst Haas is eighth. But the American also believes more cooperation would work to Ferrari’s advantage in their fight against Mercedes.

“Ultimately, Ferrari has a goal, and that is to beat Mercedes, just as we have a goal to beat some of our competitors at the back, so it’s kind of the same goal.

“Whatever we do to make that happen is good for both of us, so I would think more cooperation would be helpful.”