Haas F1 Team took Formula 1 by storm, as they powered onto the scene with sixth place at their debut Australian Grand Prix earlier this year and things look decidedly rosy for the first American team to race at the pinnacle of the sport in three decades.
Fast Forward nine months and the reality of Formula 1 – specifically the cost of running a team – is starting to bite with team owner Gene Haas admitting recently that buying an existing team would have been more cost effective in the long run.
“It would’ve been a lot more beneficial,” said Haas. “Because there are so many advantages when you’re a top 10 team. There is a lot of financial help for the teams once they’ve been established.”
“Our decision when we started in Formula 1 was to do everything out of Kannapolis. 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 told Sports Business Daily.
“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. We immediately started partnering up with Ferrari and Dallara, which turned out to be our salvation.”
“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.”
“We had a plan, but taking over a team would have probably been a very advantageous way, too,” reflected Haas.
Nevertheless the team has impressed in their ‘rookie’ year, despite form dipping in the latter half of the season. They currently lie eighth in the constructors’ championship.
Haas is a unique team as apart from their Formula 1 project, they also run the formidable Stewart-Haas NASCAR operation.
Autoweek estimates: “If Haas stays in eighth place, its first payment will only be around $2.3 million in March 2017. By then, Haas will have spent $100 million on its 2016 campaign and around a quarter of that again on 2017 as a lot of the design work is done the year beforehand.”
Haas said earlier in the season, “I don’t think F1 wants us to be here for two years. We want to be here for 10 years, We want to make a business out of it. We want to make money. There’s no doubt in my mind we can do it, especially with our model.”
“There’s opportunities that come along. A good, functioning Formula One team will probably have value to someone down the road,” added the team owner.
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