Evaluating Progress of Haas Formula 1 Team as They Prepare to Race in 2016
Formula One will welcome the Haas F1 Team to the grid at the start of the 2016 season.
Owned by multi-millionaire businessman and NASCAR team owner Gene Haas, they will be the first American constructor for over 30 years.
Haas have come under closer scrutiny than any other new team in recent years, mostly because Gene Haas has been very vocal about wanting to approach the sport and go about things in a different way.
Some have seen this as admirable character and confidence; others as naive bluster.
But whichever way one looks at it, there now seems to be little doubt Haas will make it to the grid. Engine deals have been signed, drivers have been spoken to and the money has already been found.
Here, we look at where progress is being made, and which areas are in need of urgent attention.
Engine Deal
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Haas announced in September that a deal had been reached for a supply of Ferrari power units for 2016 and beyond.
Haas began sponsoring Ferrari (a small logo at the base of the sidepods) several months ago; the tie-up with the Italian team was always going to happen, it was just a case of when they would announce it.
"Scuderia Ferrari, the most successful team in the history of Formula One with 16 constructors titles and 15 driver championships, will provide Haas F1 Team its power unit, gearbox and overall technical support. The multiyear agreement forms a strong collaboration between the two organizations that will allow Haas F1 Team to be competitive in its inaugural season and in the years following.
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The Ferrari V6 turbo is clearly not the best engine to have at the moment, but surely the Scuderia will have made significant steps to close the gap to Mercedes by 2016.
It can only be seen as a positive to have the supply of such a key component locked down so quickly.
Other Technical Details
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As well as a Ferrari engine, Haas will be buying in a lot of components from the Italian team as part of a wider technical partnership.
Haas' stated goal is to initially build as little of the car themselves as possible. Gene Haas told NBC's Will Buxton earlier in September about the Ferrari deal:
"We’re going to try to get as many parts as allowed by the FIA. It’s going to be suspension, it’s going to be I think wheels and chassis parts and transmission, engine. Everything down to even the steering modes.
One of the prior concorde agreements was that the big teams could help the smaller teams, so we hope to get a lot of help from Ferrari to tell us what direction to go in.
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He went on to say that for parts that Ferrari could not sell, the team would make extensive use of experienced sub-contractors:
"Then we’re gonna have a lot of other people to help us build those parts. Dallara will probably [be] one of the sub-contractors. Our goal at least initially is to try to rent, buy whatever we can to go racing because that’s what we’re here for.
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It's difficult to say whether a successful team can be run in this way. HRT hired Dallara to build their 2010 car and it was abysmal, but their budget was much smaller than Haas' will be.
Much will depend on the quality of Haas' many partners, how much he's willing to pay them to get the job done and how quickly they can turn around upgrades and new parts.
But not having at least a majority of parts being worked on in-house may make things more difficult, regardless of what they're given to play with.
On the happy side, the Ferrari link-up is excellent news and at the very least provide Haas with a strong base upon which to build.
Finances
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Gene Haas himself is very wealthy—Sporting News (h/t AutoWeek) estimated his net worth at more than $740 million in 2011. He is sole owner of Haas Automation, one of the world's largest CNC machine tool makers. In 2012, it announced annual revenues of $967 million.
From the beginning he has been bullish about his ability to afford F1, and claims he won't even need sponsors. He told the Daily Mail:
"We'd love to have sponsors, don't get me wrong. We'll be looking for them.
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There is interest and that's what we are going to work on now we have a definite date to start. That's something we will start now. I'm certain we'll have some kind of sponsorship on the car. I'd be surprised if we didn't.
We're not going to take any sponsor either. It has to be something that works with us and makes sense.
If we get a sponsor, that's fine, if we don't that's not going to stop us.
A stumbling block for so many newcomers, this is perhaps the area in which the Haas team looks the strongest.
Maybe the budget won't stretch to creating a world-beating car, but a repeat of the USF1 fiasco of 2010 is highly unlikely.
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Personnel
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With the Haas team not due to enter F1 until 2016, it's no surprise there have been no solid announcements regarding their driver lineup.
But there have at least been discussions.
Alexander Rossi revealed to NBC's MotorSportsTalk that he had held brief, preliminary talks with the team. This was always going to happen.
Haas stated in a press conference in April (h/t gpudate.com):
"I think we would like to have an experienced Formula One driver, someone who's familiar with the current engine package rules—they've changed quite a bit even from last year.
Then going forward we would certainly like to have a young American driver—that would be an ideal situation.
But we haven't really narrowed it down. We've had quite a few people talk to us and sending in applications.
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For the young American, Rossi seems the only one who fits the bill. Conor Daly is also moving through the junior ranks, but current Marussia reserve driver Rossi is much further down the road.
On the non-driving side, at least one member of the senior management team is already in place.
Per Formula1.com, former Red Bull technical director Gunther Steiner will be team principal. He worked for the Austrian team back in 2005, before moving to the United States to head up their unsuccessful and now defunct NASCAR project.
It folded in 2011.
After so long away from the F1 world, it will be interesting to see what Steiner can now bring to the table.
The "human capital" appears to be the weak point of Haas F1 at this stage. A strong, experienced management team should be a priority—moving forward and getting the team up and running will be tough without it.
Locations
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Initially Haas F1 appeared to be heading for a base in Kannapolis, North Carolina. A smaller European facility in Italy or Germany was also planned—Haas told a press conference (h/t Sky Sports) in April it would be for "assembly and disassembly of cars."
Things have changed a little since then, but the details remain somewhat unclear.
The European presence of the team will now be in "Motorsport Valley" in the south of the United Kingdom. Haas told The Telegraph in June, "I think initially we are going to be hiring around 200, maybe a little bit more than that at 250."
The article headline stated those jobs would be created in the UK.
Haas had previously told the Daily Mail that he didn't want a huge number of staff, indicating he was aiming for a workforce of a lot less than 500 people—a number he described as "too many."
If the figure in the article is indeed just for UK-based staff, it seems likely that will be the primary workshop and factory for the team. But alternatively, the figure quoted by The Telegraph could be an overall staff number, split between the US and UK.
Either way, a presence in the heart of the F1 industry is going to be hugely beneficial, especially if a large portion of the workforce is based there.
Being around the other factories places Haas close to the legions of experienced and skilled F1 personnel—an absolute necessity to hit the ground at anything close to running pace.
But they'll need more than 250 staff to get anywhere near the front.
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