Stewart-Haas Racing co-Owner Gene Haas revealed that his planned F1 team will join in ‘16 and that he is "considering locating its European headquarters in England where its engine department will be based,” according to Christian Sylt of FORBES. A design and aerodynamics department “will be based at the team’s head office” in Kannapolis, N.C., “alongside the factory” for SHR. Haas said, “The plan is absolutely to launch in 2016 and we are fully committed to that. I don’t think there is any doubt about that whatsoever.” He added, “I really would have liked to go racing in 2015. It was hard to sit there and say no. Trust me, I really wanted to go. The first year is always going to be going to be tough but I think that by waiting a year we will probably only have six months of it being really tough because we will be better prepared.” Sylt notes locating the team in the U.S. “is a bold move as it has only been done a handful of times in F1.” However, the risk “comes with the potential for rich rewards as it would give the team a unique selling point and make it a national flagship.” Haas, on the possibility of an England HQ, said, “That’s where most of the Formula One teams are. We can’t do anything in Italy because of the tax presence there but you obviously have Formula One itself in the south of England so that would be a potential site.” Sylt notes Haas will begin his F1 work this weekend “when he visits the Canadian Grand Prix.” Haas: “There’s a lot of logistics that we are going to learn and this weekend we are going to be asking a lot of questions” (FORBES.com, 6/4).
