F1 Team Owner Gene Haas described his initial vision for the Haas F1 Team as “silly” and “foolish,” but he applauded his squad’s ability to turn on a dime and deliver results. Haas F1 currently ranks eighth in the constructors' championship with 28 points after 13 races. It started its inaugural F1 season with three points finishes in the first four races. The team’s racing operations are largely run out of Banbury, U.K., after original plans called for North Carolina to be its home base. “Our decision when we started in Formula 1 was to do everything out of Kannapolis,” Haas told SBD Global ahead of Sunday’s Belgium Grand Prix. “That was our vision, which in retrospect was kind of silly.” Only six months into the project it became clear the complexity of today’s F1 cars would trample this idea, Haas said. “It became pretty apparent that if we do all this and try to combine 20 years of experience in six months that was pretty foolish, but we were able to turn on a dime and reverse our course,” he said. “We immediately started partnering up with Ferrari and Dallara, which turned out to be our salvation.”
ON-THE-JOB TRAINING: The Haas F1 Team not only partnered with the two Italian companies to speed up its progress, but also purchased the old Marussia factory in Banbury, which is located in England’s motorsport valley. Haas doesn't complain about the obstacles his team encountered on its way to the starting grid, but he acknowledges that a different approach could have proved less costly. “Two years ago, when we started, we had a vision, and only 10 percent of the way we thought things would go went that way,” Haas said. “The other 90 percent were new for us.” Haas put down a $20M deposit with FIA for an F1 team license in '14 and started with the construction of a new building, right next to NASCAR team Stewart-Haas Racing, which he co-owns together with three-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart. “When you look at some of the opportunities that presented themselves at the end of 2014 with Caterham and Marussia folding, those were good opportunities where you could have immediately gotten a Formula 1 license with virtually no money required,” Haas said.
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NO GUARANTEES: The founder of CNC machine tool brand Haas Automation made those investments without any guarantee that he would receive an F1 license. By taking over an existing F1 team, Haas would have immediately started to collect prize money from F1 along with other financial incentives such as transportation and freight costs. “We had a plan, but taking over a team would have probably been a very advantageous way, too,” Haas said. Haas F1 over the past two years has turned from an American team into a multi-national outfit due to unforeseen circumstances. Haas, however, is not concerned about the team’s changed identity, but rather proud his team quickly adapted to the new challenges. At the end of the day, Haas said, “We are here to race cars.”
