Haas proved last season that it is possible for new teams to join Formula 1 and find success, as long as you do things a little differently. Team principal Guenther Steiner believes this message is important for the sport going forward.
The American team’s approach to joining F1 was far from traditional. Haas could have been on the grid in 2015 but decided to put off its debut until the next season. They also purchased all the parts allowed and arrived in F1 with a close technical partnership with Ferrari. It was a model many people believed would not work, but it did.
“I think we have proven that doing it a different way works, even if in the beginning we were told it would not work,” Steiner told RACER. “Sometimes you need to look outside the box – as cliché as that sounds – because two or three years ago people were looking at our model and saying ‘that will never work’, but we looked it and thought doing the same as all the other new teams did hasn’t worked, so why would we do it?
“I think we proved a point. Not that we get anything for proving that point, but at least it is good for Formula 1, and I think it appreciates what we did for the sport in general – not for us, but for the sport – to show it can be done. We still have to do it again this year and be competitive, but I think it was a good start.”
It wasn’t a perfect year, with mechanical problems plaguing the second half of the team’s season, but it was a strong start. Haas finished ahead of Manor – the second youngest team on the grid – and Sauber – a much more experienced squad – in the constructors’ championship. The strong debut has put Haas in a good position going into year two, especially commercially, having attracted new partners for the 2017 season.
