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

[rwintle]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Should we be thinking 'Tony Stewart To F1'??

Well, he did do that car-swap publicity stunt with Lewis Hamilton a while back...

I know, fire, fuel, etc.

[Rgms320]

This sure is a long, roundabout way for Kyle Busch to finally get his F1 test

[ensign14]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

I wish them the best, I would love to see a proper US based team for a number of reasons. As mentioned above, swooping in and buying the Enstone Team would be the logical thing to do, but I doubt that fits with the goals of those behind the effort.

Richard

I don't think there's been a proper US-based team since Duesenberg. Even Dan Gurney had a British base. Haas would be better taking American staff to Motorsport Valley rather than vice versa.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Maikel0230

What makes the Haas bid interesting is that they also own property in the neighbourhood of Brussels, which could be used as a base for the European season. One of the major pains of running an F1 Team from the states would be the constant shipping, having a European bas is a very big plus.

He would surely, surely only consider a UK satellite base for ease of securing parts, staff etc etc, but if it is a Dallara chassis, maybe basing themselves in Italy wouldn't be a bad idea?

[wolfhound]

Originally Posted by chunterer

He would surely, surely only consider a UK satellite base for ease of securing parts, staff etc etc, but if it is a Dallara chassis, maybe basing themselves in Italy wouldn't be a bad idea?

I suspect the idea is only to use Dallara until they can get their own operation fully up and running based on what Joe Saward said and the facilities they have.

[P38 in workshop]

Originally Posted by ensign14

I don't think there's been a proper US-based team since Duesenberg. Even Dan Gurney had a British base. Haas would be better taking American staff to Motorsport Valley rather than vice versa.

It may be that given current news stories about the financial health of some teams and the reluctance of some owners to throw good money after bad that a selection of European premises will become available before too long.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by ensign14

I don't think there's been a proper US-based team since Duesenberg. Even Dan Gurney had a British base. Haas would be better taking American staff to Motorsport Valley rather than vice versa.

Roger Penske based his F1 team over here and continued to have his cars designed and built in Poole, Dorset during the CART era.

[Catingaround]

so, i suppose Haas' F1 racing team will named something like, HRT F1?

[climb]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

...
Should we be thinking 'Tony Stewart To F1'??

Could make sense to me; after all Tony's been in Nascar for years and won alot; what has he still to show?

[climb]

Originally Posted by Catingaround

so, i suppose Haas' F1 racing team will named something like, HRT F1?

Don't hope so!

[wnut]

Originally Posted by wolfhound

Joe Saward has been writing about the Haas entry to F1 and on the evidence Joe has the bid is serious. Haas has one of only 3 full scale rolling road wind tunnels in the world, has recently started to build a major extension to his factory. There is also evidence that he was seriously interested in taking over the USF1 project until he realised it was worth nothing.

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/...and-formula-1/

Would Haas be allowed to run a full scale wind tunnel?
Or would he just be limited to running a 75% sized model in it?

[wolfhound]

Originally Posted by wnut

Would Haas be allowed to run a full scale wind tunnel?
Or would he just be limited to running a 75% sized model in it?

I would assume he would be limited to what is in the rules when he enters, but before he enters?????

[GTRMagic]

Surely it would be easier to sidle up to LotusF1, do a full due diligence, promise to pay and never do so... so you get the skinny on what it really costs to run before doing it?

[Hawkwood]

Haas is vying for an F1 spot against a Romanian set up, backed by the government:
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/...ject/#comments

Could both be given a ticket?
I wouldn't mind at all both of these bids coming in, the Romanian team's Renault engine would surely be re-branded 'Dacia' and Mihai Marinescu would be a dead cert for a seat?

[Richard C]

I only have direct experience of my own government (US citizen), so I can't speak as to what happens elsewhere, and I know there is various levels of support at the national or local level for various racing endeavors (including here in the US), but a government backed F1 team seems very odd to me. Especially in a democracy (I get that in less democratic governments that sponsorship via public money is more likely to happen if someone in power is a fan). Overall, I think F1 is a poor place to spend public money. But I guess things are going well in Romania economically and that is usually when projects like this get the go ahead.

Richard

[wolfhound]

There is room for 2 more teams in F1 as far as I am aware as there was originally going to be 13 teams when the now Caterham & Marussia joined but the USGP team failed to get off the ground and it was too late for anybody else to start.

However if I was a new team starting I would like to know if there was any prospect of getting money from Bernie/CVC at least after the first year. Not getting money from that source could mean your teams survival would be beyond extremely difficult. The other part of that is if you have a valid entry from the FIA you should be entitled to money and a contract from FOM because of image rights etc. A new team would be in a very weak bargaining position with Bernie if recent events are anything to go by.

[321Go]

There's a very good chance one, possibly two of the current F1 teams will be looking for new owners/investors by the end of this year.

If this turns out to be true, maybe the 'new' teams should look into investing in one of these teams instead of trying to get up and running from scratch, which will ultimately cost a lot more.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

I only have direct experience of my own government (US citizen), so I can't speak as to what happens elsewhere, and I know there is various levels of support at the national or local level for various racing endeavors (including here in the US), but a government backed F1 team seems very odd to me. Especially in a democracy (I get that in less democratic governments that sponsorship via public money is more likely to happen if someone in power is a fan). Overall, I think F1 is a poor place to spend public money. But I guess things are going well in Romania economically and that is usually when projects like this get the go ahead.

Richard

You were saying

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112715

[fredd1]

Originally Posted by 321Go

There's a very good chance one, possibly two of the current F1 teams will be looking for new owners/investors by the end of this year.

If this turns out to be true, maybe the 'new' teams should look into investing in one of these teams instead of trying to get up and running from scratch, which will ultimately cost a lot more.

Fair point BUT if you take the Caterham team as an example, and Tony has spoken don't forget, exactly what do they have to offer?
They're getting dangerously close to being the next HRT.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by wnut

You were saying

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112715

Haha, good one! I was aware that the National Guard does sponsor racing teams when I wrote my post above. That is why I talked about ownership and not sponsorship. If I remember correctly it is out of their recruiting/advertisement budget. Same budget for of TV adds for recruitment (Join the Army!) or local or state funding for tourism (Come vacation in Florida!) I think there can be a defendable and measurable argument for how that money is spent. Now if the National Guard was to own a team, that would be a much harder thing to justify. Particularly the money black hole that can be "team ownership" and especially F1!

Richard

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

Overall, I think F1 is a poor place to spend public money. But I guess things are going well in Romania economically and that is usually when projects like this get the go ahead.

Richard

i cant say i find it odd at all. i feel just the mention of gov't backing makes their chances of making the grid much better then the bid of an established race organization....actually as i type this i immediately notice how the reality should be the opposite way around but its F1 and the sums required are so huge that only gov't backing is going to make it happen.

and in fairness is it really a bad investment? Ferrari have Abu Dhabi, Mclaren has Bahrain, and Merc have the Saudi's money. granted these are three established brands but still successful investments nonetheless.

also it should be said that im a believer that govt subsidies of sports is a good thing which of course is different debate and one where there is lots of evidence either way.

[climb]

Decision delayed

http://italiaracing.net/notizia.asp?...1#.UxRYP-MrfTo

(sorry, italian only)

[el_cat]

Read the decision delayed stuff on Joe Saward's blog - which suggests that this will now make it too late for any new team to get their stuff together in time for next season. Unless of course they proceed at risk and make a start without guaranteed an entry.

Smacks of a closed shop attitude if this is true - the FIA should be doing all it can to encourage and assist new entrants

[chunterer]

Well I wouldn't be surprised especially as FOTA group has disbanded.

Leave them to it and with any luck 2 or 3 more teams will have to close and see how keen they are for new teams then! (Unless of course Ferrari continue to insist on 3 cars..)

[321Go]

Gene Haas about his recent meeting with the FIA in Switzerland:

“It was about a hour-and-a-half meeting where they asked us a lot of questions about how we intend to do this, how do we intend to pay for it, what are the logistics of how you’re going to do this.

“We answered those questions as best we could. I was there. Joe Custer was there. Gunther Steiner was there.

“They’re pretty intense. They had a lot of good questions. I think what they do is they take that information, evaluate it, make their recommendations to I think it’s the Formula One’s owners association or next group of people, and the process goes on.

“From what I’ve learned talking to other people, this is fairly normal.

“There’s lots of dates they have. They don’t really make a decision until they’re sure what they want the decision to be.”