2016 saw the arrival of the long-awaited Haas F1 Team in Formula One.
As an entirely new constructor without purchasing an already competing outfit, getting to grips with everything in the sport was always going to be a challenge, but one the team took head on.
Their investment wasn’t without controversy and how they put the team together caused some current teams to raise their eyebrows.
In an attempt to reduce the costs of running the team, in a traditional sense of building everything themselves and just bringing in a power unit supplier, Haas went about things a little differently.
Their main base was in Kannapolis, South Carolina coupled with the Banbury factory, that once housed the Marussia F1 team, in the UK which was going to be a forward base to help with operations outside the US.
Hiring Italian manufacturer Dallara to build their chassis and having a hugely lucrative development partnership from Ferrari were the main pillars on what Haas built their foundations on.
The partnership with Ferrari also did cause some more controversy, as Haas at the time were not bound by the technical regulations at the time and therefore could work in the wind tunnel as much as they liked. It was feared that Ferrari personnel were going to the Haas factory with Ferrari parts for their 2016 car but this was never proven.
As a result of this, the FIA have now stipulated that any team that makes an application to race in Formula One is bound by the technical regulations as soon as their entry is submitted.
Once the team had pieced together everything including drivers Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez, it was time to get into winter testing and turn the wheel in anger.
A front wing failure in the morning session of their first day running the car quickly caught their attention, but in the true spirit of the team, they managed to construct a fix so they could run again after the lunchtime break.
Despite this being the most notable issue of their pre-season testing program, other problems did rear their head as they usually do when running any new car.
When it was time for the Australian Grand Prix no one knew how they would perform, despite both cars being knocked out of the first part of qualifying, Grosjean managed to turn that around in the race with a canny strategy as he changed tyres during the red flag period after Gutierrez and Alonso crashed heavily,
Securing a sixth place finish and screaming “this is a win for us” over the radio as he crossed the line, it was a result no one expected.
In Bahrain, both cars managed to make it to the second part of qualifying, but Grosjean took it one step further and made into Q3 really showcasing that the team meant business.
The race however again was a mixed event of emotions, Guttierez suffering brake failure on lap 11, yet Grosjean went on to have an event free race and go one better than Australia and finish fifth. It was something that was happening almost out of a fairytale.
However, the early successes in the season were, in reality, the only major high points they can look back on. Further success in Russia, Austria and the United States would be the last finishes for Grosjean, while Gutierrez failed to score a point all season long.
As the races ticked by, it was becoming evident that the team’s inexperience was beginning to show through, often with complaints from the drivers over the radio complaining about car setup.
Despite this, the team kept up their morale and pushed forward.
Brake issues plagued the team throughout the season with five of the ten non-starts or finishes being down to failures.
In Singapore, Grosjean didn’t even start the race due to brake-by-wire problems, then, in Malaysia, another failure on the front right saw him spinning into the gravel at high speed on the approach to the final corner.
Tensions felt high within the team as it was a fundamentally crucial area that they were failing in.
At the Brazilian Grand Prix, Grosjean had qualified the highest ever position for the team in seventh, yet on his way to the starting grid, he aquaplaned on the sodden circuit, damaging the car.
Gutierrez fell out of the race also due to an electrical issue with the car, but notably had a spat with Team Principal Guenther Steiner in front of the TV cameras, this also happened not long after the announcement came that he would no longer be with the team in 2017, so that could well have factored into the emotions of the moment.
So did Haas have a successful first season in Formula One?
Five points finishes and scoring 29 points throughout the season with a best of fifth in Bahrain saw them beat well-established teams and has really put them on the map after securing eighth in the Constructors’ championship ahead of Renault, Sauber and Manor.
The foundations of the team are very solid and have been done in such a way to achieve longevity in their project. While it did get rocky at times within the team, with such inexperience it was never going to be smooth sailing.
With new regulations to get on top of for 2017 and a new driver in Kevin Magnussen, the signs are only looking up for the Haas team which are keen to take on the world of Formula One with a determined vigour.
Gene Haas’ other teams are proven winners in other series, can he translate into Formula One in the future? Time will tell.
What happened since 2016?
Haas did prove it belonged in Formula 1, but the climb was uneven. The team reached fifth in the Constructors’ Championship in 2018, only for the Rich Energy saga, car-concept missteps and lean development cycles to drag it back down the order. The 2021 season, built around Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher, was effectively sacrificed as Haas waited for the new regulations.
There were recoveries: Kevin Magnussen’s shock pole in Brazil in 2022, Nico Hulkenberg’s qualifying flashes, and the team’s ability to survive where other new F1 projects never reached the grid. But the original question about whether Haas could become more than a smart, Ferrari-linked customer operation stayed open.
The most significant reset came after Guenther Steiner left at the start of 2024 and Ayao Komatsu took over. By 2026, Haas had Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman in the car and Toyota Gazoo Racing as title partner, deepening a technical relationship that pointed to a more ambitious phase. The debut-season foundations were real; the challenge has been turning them into sustained progress.
