[Team] Haas: Gene Haas of NASCAR attempting to start F1 team

[climb]

Originally Posted by davyboy

I say this having lived in the US for a number of years. It's not beyond possible that F1's popularity will grow but I don't believe it will ever be anything other than a fringe series and I can't for a moment envisage it usurping NASCAR.

Provided motorsport has a large fan base in the US so there's room for both, I'd be a bit more S.o.B. and say that US fans have always disliked sports where the US are not protagonist , but once someone from the States proves successful in one of them, the attention from the fan base an the media raises sharply.

Just remember what happened with Soccer World Cup in 2010...

So I'm quite confident that once an US F1 team gets a good position on the grid, many fans will join, and possibly forget about Nascar

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by climb

Provided motorsport has a large fan base in the US so there's room for both, I'd be a bit more S.o.B. and say that US fans have always disliked sports where the US are not protagonist , but once someone from the States proves successful in one of them, the attention from the fan base an the media raises sharply.

Just remember what happened with Soccer World Cup in 2010...

So I'm quite confident that once an US F1 team gets a good position on the grid, many fans will join, and possibly forget about Nascar

One of the things you notice when you move to the US is that 'national' things are more important than 'international' things for most Americans. There are plenty of reasons why this is the case and, despite what some people might believe, there's nothing inherently wrong with that. NASCAR is a very strong domestic series that understands its fan base extremely well. In the eyes of most NASCAR fans, it ticks all the boxes. Even if American had a world champion team or driver in F1... that sport would struggle to get anywhere close to the penetration NASCAR has, let alone dislodge it.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by davyboy

One of the things you notice when you move to the US is that 'national' things are more important than 'international' things for most Americans.

Like the baseball "world series"

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Like the baseball "world series"

It has been suggested the ''world series'' derives its title from the ''New York World'' news paper, published in New York City from 1860 until 1931, which was generally known as ''The World'' and which allegedly helped promote the series. However, this has never been substantiated.

[Richard C]

I can't remember how long ago the press conference was. At that time they said they would be making a decision regarding 2015 or 2016 entry within the next few weeks (if I remember correctly). And it seemed to hing upon progress of partnership agreement(s). No news doesn't mean nothing has happened, but... I don't think I have heard anything. Has anyone seen anything posted other than the rumored visits to the Lotus/Enstone team.

Richard

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

It has been suggested the ''world series'' derives its title from the ''New York World'' news paper, published in New York City from 1860 until 1931, which was generally known as ''The World'' and which allegedly helped promote the series. However, this has never been substantiated.

That was indeed debunked some years ago. Apparently the New York World never even sponsored the competition, never mind giving its name to it.
The 'World Series' name is just a shortened version of the original full name 'World's Championship Series'.

Anyway, I agree that the USA's slightly ambivalent attitude to F1 is something that Haas would have to beat if he wants big American companies to sponsor him.
No fans = no sponsors.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Like the baseball "world series"

Hey, if you can put together a team that can beat the Red Sox, you could be world champs too. My team certainly can't.

[bjohnsonsmith]

According to this Haas is looking at Ferrari as a potential technical partner.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ha...wards-ferrari/

[climb]

Yes but as far as now, everything will slide to the 2016 season

[canamman]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

According to this Haas is looking at Ferrari as a potential technical partner.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ha...wards-ferrari/

That was a good article. Now I have a better idea of his mindset.
Interesting points by JPM.

[HJJ]

Haas to delay F1 entry: Haas Formula will defer its Formula One debut until 2016, Motorsports.com has learned. The decision to wait an extra year will offer the organization more time to put its program together and align itself with the proper partners moving forward. Although team owner Gene Haas said on Sunday morning that he was "leaning towards Ferrari" because "they're more open to what we need to do" the additional time could open other doors for the rookie team with other technical partners. It was clear that Haas was feeling the time crunch when he acknowledged, "It just seems that it's taking longer to accomplish what we wanted to do than we thought." While Haas Formula has its team principal in place, there's still the question of technical partner, designers and drivers.(Motorsport.com)(5-28-2014)

.

[chillibowl]

smart.

i think you have to wait out this year to see if someone drops out (maybe two teams even) and an entry/car design/factory/equipment etc comes up for sale.

[Hawkwood]

Smart maybe, but disappointing none-the-less.
I always like new teams and was looking forward to seeing one next year.

[canamman]

Ditto. Oh well. Mis-steps at that level can be expensive.

[Paradise City]

It's a decision that means his team can build tough foundations. It's the only decision to make.

[wnut]

When someone issues a statement with "moving forward" in it, I start worrying!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by wnut

When someone issues a statement with "moving forward" in it, I start worrying!

Then it's best to move on.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Then it's best to move on.

[HJJ]

My first thought was that their "partner" would be Honda. And why not wait a year.

[wolfhound]

I can see some good logic in Haas using Ferrari as a partner. As there are no American engines in F1 then the name of Ferrari would propably go down in best in the USA in terms of finding commercial partners(sponsorship). Ferrari would be a name that I suspect is well respected in the USA and known for its motorracing exploits. For Ferrari an American team if it does a respectable job will be of use in selling Ferrari's.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by wolfhound

I can see some good logic in Haas using Ferrari as a partner. As there are no American engines in F1 then the name of Ferrari would propably go down in best in the USA in terms of finding commercial partners(sponsorship). Ferrari would be a name that I suspect is well respected in the USA and known for its motorracing exploits. For Ferrari an American team if it does a respectable job will be of use in selling Ferrari's.

Yes indeed...

[Teretonga]

This whole proposal has sense of 'deja vu' for me, especially when Dallara and Ferrari are mentioned.
Back in the late 80's we had Italian industrialist Giuseppe Lucchini start an Italian F1 team using Dallara chassis. He had been involved in the WTTC but for 1988 started a F1 team

Initially they used the Cosworth DFR and later (1991) the Judd V10 before becoming a Ferrari customer in 1992. The Dallara's weren't bad at all and they scored a few points (then top 6) and two podiums (1989 and 1991).
In 1993 they changed to Lola's but were less than successful and for 1994/1995 BMS was merged with Minardi. Lucchini left to pursue other programmes in 1996.

There are just so many similarities in this Hass project that I wonder if we are going to see something similar again. I wish Hass the best but he is taking on an enormously expensive task from scratch. No one has done that successfully in F1since the late 60's and that is a completely different era.

Even doing what Lucchini did and getting two podiums, one in his second year, would be unheard of in this era.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

This whole proposal has sense of 'deja vu' for me, especially when Dallara and Ferrari are mentioned.
Back in the late 80's we had Italian industrialist Giuseppe Lucchini start an Italian F1 team using Dallara chassis. He had been involved in the WTTC but for 1988 started a F1 team

Initially they used the Cosworth DFR and later (1991) the Judd V10 before becoming a Ferrari customer in 1992. The Dallara's weren't bad at all and they scored a few points (then top 6) and two podiums (1989 and 1991).
In 1993 they changed to Lola's but were less than successful and for 1994/1995 BMS was merged with Minardi. Lucchini left to pursue other programmes in 1996.

There are just so many similarities in this Hass project that I wonder if we are going to see something similar again. I wish Hass the best but he is taking on an enormously expensive task from scratch. No one has done that successfully in F1since the late 60's and that is a completely different era.

Even doing what Lucchini did and getting two podiums, one in his second year, would be unheard of in this era.

Talking about deja vu, when Haas announced he was putting things back a year to 2016, I thought is this going to be US F1 all over again? Time will tell.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

There are just so many similarities in this Hass project that I wonder if we are going to see something similar again. I wish Hass the best but he is taking on an enormously expensive task from scratch. No one has done that successfully in F1since the late 60's and that is a completely different era.

Even doing what Lucchini did and getting two podiums, one in his second year, would be unheard of in this era.

Although they did it completely in-house, you seem to be overlooking Stewart Grand Prix which has morphed into RBR, and in the process taken 4 double world championships. Not to shabby for a "fledgeling" team, eh?

[wolfhound]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

There are just so many similarities in this Hass project that I wonder if we are going to see something similar again. I wish Hass the best but he is taking on an enormously expensive task from scratch. No one has done that successfully in F1since the late 60's and that is a completely different era.

I won't go through the list of teams in F1 that have started up and raced in F1 for more than 5 or 6 years as that is what I would regard as the basis of a succesful F1 team. Of the current F1 teams only 2 of them can be traced directly back to the sixties namely Ferrari and McLaren. Williams started in the early seventies and the current Mercedes squad can be tenuously traced back to Tyrrell. Of the rest they are all of more recent vintage.