Haas F1 Team |
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Official Site: haasf1team.com
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History
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Haas F1 Team page on 17 June 2020, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Haas Formula LLC, competing as Haas F1 Team, is an American licensed Formula One racing team established by NASCAR Cup Series team co-owner Gene Haas in April 2014. The team originally intended to make its debut at the start of the 2015 season, but later elected to postpone their entry until the 2016 season.
The team is headquartered in Kannapolis, North Carolina – 50 km (31 mi) from Charlotte – alongside sister team and NASCAR entrant Stewart-Haas Racing, though the two teams are separate entities. The team also established a second forward base in Banbury in Oxfordshire for the purpose of turning cars around between races during the European part of the calendar.
Haas was the first American constructor to submit an F1 entry after the failed US F1 project in 2010, and it is the first American team to compete since the unrelated Haas Lola outfit raced in the 1985 and 1986 seasons. The Haas Lola team was owned by former McLaren boss Teddy Mayer and Carl Haas, who is not related to Gene Haas.
Following the collapse of Marussia F1 during the 2014 season and the auctioning of their assets, Haas purchased the team's Banbury headquarters to serve as a forward base for their operations.
Unrestricted by testing regulations until the time the team actually entered Formula One, Haas shook its new car down in December 2015 ahead of official pre-season testing at Barcelona in early 2016. Haas approached Italian manufacturer Dallara to build their chassis, with a power unit supplied by Ferrari. Former Jaguar and Red Bull Racing technical director Guenther Steiner is the team principal. Haas confirmed its new car had passed the mandatory FIA crash tests on January 8, 2016.
The team announced on September 29, 2015 that Romain Grosjean would be one of their drivers for 2016. On October 30, 2015 during the Mexican Grand Prix weekend, it was officially announced that Ferrari test driver Esteban Gutiérrez would join the team for 2016.
Haas's approach of establishing a far-reaching partnership with Ferrari was met with a mixed response from the paddock. The team was applauded for pioneering a low-cost model that would allow new teams to enter the sport and be competitive, which had been of concern to the sport following the collapse of HRT and Caterham, and ongoing financial problems that had threatened Marussia and Lotus, which is also what prompted Paul Stoddart to sell Minardi to Red Bull. Conversely, Haas's approach was criticized by smaller, privateer teams who had invested in their own infrastructure and expressed concerns about the close relationship between manufacturers and satellite teams handing more political power to the sport's larger teams.
In 2018 the team was again coming under fire from competitors after the team showed up at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for winter testing with a car that strongly resembled the Ferrari SF70H. McLaren and Force India both criticized the partnership between Ferrari and Haas. While no official grievance has been filled with the FIA, McLaren boss Zak Brown has questioned the relationship.
During F1 2021 rule discussions in April 2019 concerns over Haas F1's B-team approach were presented by Renault and McLaren. Director of Motorsports, Ross Brawn, looks to protect and enhance the model for the foreseeable future as it allows teams with smaller budgets to enter the sport.
| Date | Article | Author/Source |
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| 4 May 2017 | K1 Speed Announces Haas F1 Team Official Viewing Party Calendar | K1 Speed |