Haas, America’s New Formula One Team After Top Drivers
Gene Haas is bringing the US back into Formula 1 racing, after a 30-yr absence, with a Ferrari-affiliated team in Y 2016.
Mr. Haas announced that his F1 team will be headed up by principal Guenther Steiner, with Dave O’Neill (formerly of Marussia) as team manager, Rob Taylor (also from Marussia) as chief designer and Ben Agathangelou (formerly of Scuderia Ferrari) as chief aerodynamicist
Haas has defended itself recently amid speculation it is already bending the rules, as it is not yet racing, the Haas Team is outside of the current wind tunnel testing restrictions.
But its work at Ferrari’s Maranello tunnel recently caught the attention of the governing FIA, triggering an inspection.
Team boss Gunther Steiner told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, “In principle, we are doing nothing different to what Force India does at Toyota. We are a customer of Ferrari’s in the wind tunnel.”
However, Haas is making no secret of its close alliance with Ferrari, as it makes the most of the current rules in terms of buying parts from the Scuderia.
Mr. Steiner insists that Haas is designing its own chassis, “We have designed our own chassis. Rob Taylor has been working on it since January.”
Much of this work is taking place at Dallara, the Italian chassis manufacturer. Team Haas also has a HQ in North Carolina, and another in Banbury, at the former Marussia base.
Mr. Steiner denies that Dallara is making the Haas car. “We have our own offices at Dallara,” he said. “It’s like a company within a company.”
Haas’ attention has turned towards signing up the race drivers for Y 2016. The team has said it may pair an experienced hand with a rookie.
But Mr. Steiner now says: “We are looking for 2 drivers with experience. As a new team, we do not want to be running a driving school. “You need 2 drivers who already know what they’re doing,” he insisted.
Auto Motor und Sport said a Ferrari-linked driver is a near-certainty, with Jean-Eric Vergne apparently the front-runner ahead of Esteban Gutierrez.
As for the other seat, Nico Hulkenberg, Romain Grosjean and Felipe Nasr are all linked with Haas, while Americans Alexander Rossi and Danica Patrick have been ruled out.
Terrific, an American Team is back in F1.
Stay tuned…
HeffX-LTN
Paul Ebeling
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