Haas eyes Ferrari for technical partnership

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Gene Haas says he has had extensive talks with Ferrari in regards to a possible technical partnership deal ahead of entering Formula 1 in 2016.

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Gene Haas seeks technical alliance with existing Formula 1 team (Autosport)

Haas: “We are trying to nail down a technology partner. We’ve spent a lot of time with Ferrari, and talked a little bit with Mercedes. Engine supplier is only half the equation here, and we’re still working on that. We have 50 per cent of what we need to start building our own cars, and the ultimate goal is to do that, and that’s the way we are going to go.”

Living the American dream – Exclusive Q&A with Gene Haas (Formula1.com)

Haas: “Our experience in NASCAR has taught us to efficiently deploy assets and we will do the same thing in Formula One. Our plan is not to spend hundreds of millions to be successful. I think we can show people that you don’t have to go on such a spending spree to be successful.”

Lewis Hamilton confident of catching Nico Rosberg in title race (BBC)

Hamilton: “There is a long way to go. I caught up before and I’ll catch up again.”

Massa and Perez bring blame game to Twitter (ESPN)

“On Twitter, both Massa and Perez have retweeted freeze frame shots of the accident to try to prove their innocence after giving different versions of events after the race. The accident happened on the final lap as they fought over fourth place, with contact occurring as Massa attempted to pass Perez on the inside.”

Button Expecting More Progress After Surprise Fourth In Montreal (SPEED)

Button: “Very happy to get fourth, some good points. But I think more than the position the progress that the team has made is good, and there’s more to come at the next race, hopefully a bigger step. The next couple of races are where we should see more progress, which should take us close to the front. A fourth place without people crashing is probably our aim for the next race, I should say.

Formula One suffering global TV ratings decline (Autoweek)

“The analysis indicated that the ratings decline began with Sebastian Vettel’s utter dominance a few years ago, when the global audience fell from 515 million in 2011 to 500 million in 2012. And Bernie Ecclestone’s FOM company revealed a further drop of 50 million viewers last year, ending with a nine-race winning streak by the Red Bull driver.”

VIDEO: Vettel and Ricciardo preview the Red Bull Ring (Rec Bull via YouTube)

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Comment of the day

With Kimi Raikkonen admitting that he has no explanation for why he has struggled for consistency this season, @insilico is hoping the Finn finds a solution soon.

The sooner Raikkonen gets to grips with the Ferrari then the better for all of us. Of all the teammate battles on the grid, potentially seeing Kimi on par with Alonso in most of the races would be utterly phenomenal to watch. We already got a taste of it in Spain and I’d love to see it happen more. Regardless if you think that Alonso is the better driver of the two, moving to a new team does take a long time to fully adjust and get to grips with a new car. So give him time, as I’m sure he’ll keep steadily improving as the season progresses.
@insilico

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Following his setback in Spain two weeks earlier, Michael Schumacher got his championship campaign back on track with victory in the Canadian Grand Prix 20 years ago today.

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Will Wood
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95 comments on “Haas eyes Ferrari for technical partnership”

  1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    12th June 2014, 1:15

    I truly hope Loic Duval is okay. That was an utterly horrific scene.

    1. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114403
      He’s pretty much okay apart from a few cuts though not allowed to race.

      1. @hunocsi Wow, Audi can rebuild that car!? Impressing!

        1. Flynn Taggart
          12th June 2014, 9:46

          Not quite.

          “[…] the #1 R18, which is being rebuilt around a new monocoque […]”

        2. No way. When I first saw the picture I thought it was a crashed motorcycle. Great to hear that Duval is okay.

        3. No, they took a new chassis and are preparing it for the final qualifying sessions.

  2. either way, if Gene Haas goes with either Mercedes, or Ferrari. I still think it’ll go down hill fast.

    1. @kieferh4 Should get a good entry into Eau Rouge then.

      1. hahahahahhaha. I thought I was bad at puns hahah, but that one I wouldn’t have thought of hahaha

  3. Gene Hass is unfortunately suffering from that mind set that ” the yanks do it best” syndrome. Has he learned nothing from seeing 1st RedBull, then Mercedes out spend the rest of the field to achieve their target in F1. If he just had a word with Mr Fernandez down at Caterham he would soon get the idea that even after spending a fair sum of money, it’s more about the people you have working for you and how they implement their ideas with the budget in mind, look at Marussia.
    I also believe the Ferrari partnership is a none starter, purely based on the fact the one of the backers for the new ‘Forza Rossa’ F1 team are the sole importers of Ferraris to Romania, so would say it’s a done deal on that front. The regs don’t allow an engine supplier to serve more than 4 teams, meaning Hass must look elsewhere, but who would want to be second choice after he has made so much fuss about Ferrari. Mercedes seem like his only option as they loose McLaren next year, nobody in their right mind would take a Renault unit and it will be too late on in the design phase to wait and see how Honda fair.
    To me at least it appears Hass F1 is destined for eventual failure, it’s just a matter of how much money he wants to loose before he throws in the towel. Let’s face it, his company is gonna look pretty silly if they just become ‘also ran’, who want to buy stuff off a what I fear will look like a bunch of amateurs. I hope I’m proven wrong, only time will tell

    1. They said the same to brabham, engine designed by you flying around looking at stock motors, then getting a guy from ballarat to make it a race engine, then make it in dandenong with all local components, then fly it out to europe to beat the cosworth dfv… impossible…. maybe….

      1. Where are Brabham now though? Hass makes out he gonna show the world how to race F1 on a shoestring, but Marussia already do that. We don’t need even more backmarkers. I give it 5 years and he will sell up or just close the team down. They guy comes across as deluded, especially on the budget front and his Ferrari dreams are just that, dreams, they are gonna supply Forza Rossa.

        1. If Adam Cooper is to be believed, Forza Rossa intend to use Renault engines instead of Ferrari (earlier rumours suggested that Kolles’s entry was tied in with Dacia, a subsidiary of Renault). http://adamcooperf1.com/2014/06/02/fia-grants-entry-to-romanian-frr-f1-project/

          Furthermore, we know that di Montezemolo has been talking for years about how he wants a US based outfit racing a customer Ferrari car in F1.
          Although it isn’t quite as he would want, Haas’s outfit would offer di Montezemolo the closest opportunity to turn that dream into a reality. I wouldn’t blame Haas for trying to take advantage of di Montezemolo’s known enthusiasm to broker a deal with him.

      2. Good point Alex but the Cosworth DFV didn’t exist until after Jack proved that a compact lightweight V8 could be a winner, the DFV is the engine Jack would have built had he had Fords money and Cosworths resources.

    2. Haas’s mindset is anything but “the yanks do it best”. He wants to base the team in the States because he has all the facilities in place there. He may be making a mistake (I think he is), but he’s not doing it because he thinks ‘yanks do it best”. He has made it clear that his No. 1 driver will not be an American. He is looking all over the world for the right people to staff the F1 team. He is seeking a technical partnership with teams from Italy and Germany. What in the world gave you the idea that he thinks “yanks do it best”?

      As to his budget, does anyone know what his budget is?

      A top tier American racing organization is coming into Formula One. I would have thought that everyone would be thrilled by this. Instead, Haas is getting a lot of stick from people who have no idea what his program is. Cut the guy some slack.

      1. Yeah lets cut the guy some slack.

        What I like about Haas is that he’s made his intentions clear. He has used racing in the US to expand his brand, and now he’s coming to F1 with the view of taking it global. Fair play. Plus, unlike Vijay Malaya and Tony Fernandes, he is coming into F1 with the experience of running a top level racing team, albeit in the US, its still a better starting point that many. The only concern I have is is idea of operating out of the States…that could be his downfall, but you never know, Haas appears to be a pretty resourcefull chap, he just might make it work. Im mean, if I had top notch facilities like he already has, I would probably think about using it too!!

        If Haas manages a couple seasons in F1, it could be mission accomplished. His brand would have got more publicity than ever by then.

      2. I’m thrilled and I really wish him the best. I’m starting to think that it’s not about “yanks to it better” mentality from Haas but “it can’t be done outside Europe” mentality from many of us. Let give the guy a chance to try, he’s a respectable business record so let’s assume he knows what he’s doing, it can go wrong but I believe this all plan did not came out of the blue. He can make it work, in 21st century, to me, it wouldn’t come as a big surprise.

    3. I think Haas’ approach is smart well thought thru and to base the operation in the US can be an advantage – far off from what BAR or USF1 did in the past.
      So far teams went to Europe because the logistics are just easier but the downside is that the labor market is very competitive. Engineering talents are hard to come by as a newcomer team and in the US there is probably a larger pool to chose from. And his other ventures in racing are solid, so I appreciate that he decided to join and I’ll keep an open mind.

    4. American F1
      12th June 2014, 17:37

      I gather from the comments many of you do not know much about Gene Haas. No, he is not suffering from “yanks do it best” syndrome in the least. IMO he is taking a smart, logical, methodcial, and business oriented approach to starting a brand new F1 team in a very competitive segment of auto racing. Bear in mind that this guy is not in business to fail. He is an extremely successful businessman with Haas Automation (I would venture that several of the current F1 teams probably use CNC machines from Haas), an extremely successful NASCAR team owner with Stewart/Haas Racing, and he owns one of the most (if not the most) advanced full-sized wind tunnels in the world (used by several of the F1 teams on the grid today). It seems to me he is going into this with eyes wide open and has already said it will take between three to five years just to be competitive. He has taken a look at Caterham and I expect Marussia as well and seems to be looking for a different way of operating. It would seem to me that would be a good thing, or is F1 some kind of Euro-only club?

  4. That RedBull video is quite cool. Nice CGI and the sculpture of the Bull looks awesome.

    1. Track shape is a little bit like Budapest. Eventhough it’s a new track (to me) and that should make it interesting, I’m still kind of hoping for rain.

      1. @bazza-spock How is that like the Hungaroring? RB Ring has relatively lot of long straights wit a few fast corners, the Hungaroring is one long straight with slow corners all around.

        1. I doubt they’d get away with taking that line through turn 1 now though!

          1. @strontium Yeah, someone (probably Jenson, not sure) said in an interview that they will be a bit slower into turn 2 because now they can’t run 10 meters wide in turn 1.

            By the way, I think it’s nice to see they didn’t put a DRS zone on the straight approaching to turn 2 where it’s a good overtaking spot anyway but in the two straights where overtaking was possible but very hard.

      2. It’s nothing like the Hungaroring. The Budapest track is my least favourite, with every corner bar turn 6 being the same. This is very much an exciting, old school circuit!

    2. Yeah, fantastic animation. Impressive what technology can do in the right hands.

    3. In that video I only saw a dead end for Ferrari and some other cars with Renault engine.
      But, yes, video is cool.

  5. Mark in Florida
    12th June 2014, 3:06

    Haas may be talking to Ferrari, but since Mclaren is going to be out of the picture soon Mercedes will need another partner. Haas will figure out pretty quickly how much commitment he will have to have to succeed. Old Smokey Yunik said it years ago speed costs money how fast do you want to go?

    1. Mercedes and McLaren have never been technical partners as such since 2010… McLaren have a technical partnership with Force India.

      1. not anymore though, FI now has a technical partnership with Mercedes

  6. I hope Kimi can fix his problems. His spin at the harpin last sunday was incredibly odd to see !

  7. In regards to what Hamilton said, most people say “I can catch up” not “I will catch up”. Either Hamilton does not think much of Rosberg’s abilities, or else he’s just arrogant.

    1. What’s wrong with having confidence? He needs it more than ever now

      1. Agreed. That comment is a blatant attempt at bashing Hamilton for no reason.

    2. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      12th June 2014, 7:15

      The fact that you’re making an issue out of this is just a joke.

    3. Are you serious?

    4. I think he is convinced that btoth he and the car are up to it, and had a 4 race run where he was the one finishing in front, so he knows its well possible to do it @wsrgo

      1. And therefore, ‘he can’. But ‘will’?

        Maybe the fact that I’m making an issue out of this is that I generally approach everything with a sense of realism. That at times may be measured optimism (kind of like, ‘I hope’), but I’m prepared to encounter any failures of any sort, some of which may be outside my realm of control.

        In a similar vein, I find it strange when in matters of competition, a person says something ‘will’ happen. Of course, I guess it’s just me and the way I look at things.

        1. @wsrgo: I’d call it a positive mental attitude. You don’t get to be world champion by thinking “I can probably do it. I’ll give it a go and see what happens.” You have to be thinking “I can do it! I will do it!” It can come across as arrogant and I don’t find it particularly attractive either, but I see it as normal for any serious championship contender. Some of them may mince their words in interviews but I suspect that it’s the way they all feel, and Hamilton is prone to letting the world know how he feels.

        2. @wsrgo

          And therefore, ‘he can’. But ‘will’?

          Yeeeeeeeaaah. So when a wife asks her husband whether he can fix her car, he says yes, then actually doesn’t fix it and the wife says he’s a bad husband the husband can charge her because she only asked about his ability to fix the aforementioned car rather than whether he was going to actually do so?

          Give me a bl**dy break.

          1. @davidnotcoulthard I was talking about competition, not daily chores.

        3. That at times may be measured optimism (kind of like, ‘I hope’),

          In another sport, I remember a bloke called David Moyes had “hope”. It did not end well.

    5. petebaldwin (@)
      12th June 2014, 12:05

      No he’s just saying he’s determined and will catch him back up. Rosberg did the same thing when he said “I’m still in the lead of the WDC. Actually no, I won’t say ‘still’ because I’m not going to lose the lead!”

      In regards to what he thinks about his and Rosberg’s ability, he retired from Australia, won the next 4 races, was faster at Monaco but didn’t get a chance to do his lap in qualifying and was faster and overtook Rosberg in Canada but had to retire.

      I imagine he probably does feel that he’s the better driver so he’s just showing confidence in his team and his car to not break down anymore!

      1. I think LH will catch up even though I’m pulling for NR. I have no real issues with LH and I will sleep just fine if he wins the WDC, but I just side with NR. Part of me hopes NR has a DNF so people will perhaps then get off the ‘NR is only leading because’…bandwagon. So I’d like to see things more evened out in that regard, while at the same time DNFs are a part of racing and always have been, and if LH loses the WDC due to more bad luck, that’s not NR’s fault. That’s just sometimes the way it happens in racing. MS had the lion’s share of bad luck when he was aside NR at Mercedes. MS also had record breaking reliability at Ferrari and nobody claimed he ‘just won because of that.’ You still have to run the races and do the job and not choke under pressure. Not that MS had much of that but NR and LH sure do due to the close rivalry.

        Sure when you dissect everything it seems LH has the edge and will catch up. That won’t surprise me at all, but I allow that NR may be learning as we speak…learning how to extract more from the car etc etc. He may already be harder competition for LH than he was at the start of the season. Or LH could find something and start obliterating NR. It’s not a static thing…it is ever evolving.

        Forgetting Monaco qualifying, and even forgetting how hard it is when you have such equal cars for the driver behind to pass, NR still did not squander his opportunity and did not bow to pressure. He also nailed his start which has been far from a given for him this season. So he showed great ability to handle big pressure in Monaco. Forgetting the chicane issue on Sunday in Montreal, NR out qualified LH at ‘his’ track, and proceeded to hold LH back even with LH’s DRS advantage for the first half of the race. I think those things say something about how NR is dealing with something he is only experiencing for the first time…a consistently WDC capable car whereas LH has had them before.

        I think LH is going to be darn hard to beat, darn hard to keep from catching up, and that’s just the reality that NR has, and also the opportunity that NR has to show us his stuff. All the other drivers only wish they were in LH and NR’s shoes right now.

    6. Oh come on, these guys are not writers carefully choosing and putting their characters words down in the book. Let’s not get over analytic with every comma they put in their phrases. Can, may, will, shall, of course, certainly … whatever.

      1. This.

  8. For a championship battle as close fought and significant as Hamilton & Rosberg, I’d hate to see it decided on the basis of one driver being more lucky in regards to mechanical failures or things beyond their control. However with the cars as complex as they are and double points on the horizon, I’m not holding out too much hope. Hamilton has lost out 43 points on Rosberg through no fault of his own, and it’s incredibly hard to claw back that deficit through results alone. Lewis needs Rosberg’s car to let him down at some point I reckon, and I’m sure it’s bound to happen at some point this year.

    1. I’m sure ROS will have his share of bad luck this season. Not to mention with double points HAM has a shot. However, the leader of the two in my opinion needs at least a 15 point gap going into the final race. The way they have been finishing this season, you need to cover the other guy off if you finish 2nd to him in Abu Dhabi.

      1. Why not 51?

    2. @insilico

      it’s incredibly hard to claw back that deficit through results alone

      Well, this young kid named Sebastian did a few years ago with an RB6 thingy (he should’ve walked the end of the season, I think).

      Just reminding you it’s possible, that’s all.

    3. I don’t see Mercedes dominating till the final race. Red Bull will win again, and I expect McLaren/Williams/Force India to also luck into an other.
      There’s also another double failure, engine penalty, A high qualifying Grosjean/Maldonado forgetting to brake into the first corner, Or a Turkey-style crash between the two.
      A number of factors which can effect the two.

      1. Daniel (@collettdumbletonhall)
        13th June 2014, 1:55

        They will dominate it. They are miles ahead of the other Mercedes engined cars and their closest rivals can’t improve their power unit because of regulations. FIA shot themselves in the foot a little there I think.

    4. petebaldwin (@)
      12th June 2014, 11:58

      @insilico – it’s a shame but that’s how it’ll happen.

      Mercedes have finished 1st and 2nd in every race when they haven’t had technical issues. There’s nothing to suggest this is going to change throughout the season.

      On that basis, a DNF means your main competitor will most likely win. Therefore a DNF means -25 points. Finishing 2nd only means -7.

      That means that for every DNF, it will likely take you a minimum of 4 races to recover! If you have 2 DNFs in a row, that’s half a season of straight wins just to catch back up!

      1. Which in turn isnt a real point. If we look back at 2002, Raikkonen had a fast car, but half the races it wouldnt cross the line. Looking at Ferrari, for example, we see reliable cars. Every now and then they have some sort of failure, but it never is race-ending, or as catastrophic as Mercedes’ MGU-K failure in Canada.

  9. Haas stated out saying he’d do everything himself bar the engine, spend pennies on the proverbial dollar, show the Europeans how to do things properly, and be on the grid next year.

    Even the cheerleaders of the project would admit at the time his statements were grossly optimistic. To those who weren’t, they were flat out stupid.

    His first learning experience was that you can’t build an f1 team, design, build and test a car in 9 months, so 2015 was never going to happen.

    His next one appears to be a quiet acknowledgement that experience is valuable, that experience isn’t widespread in America, and he’ll need expert help from the only place it’s available. A technical partnership is the right way to do that, but he’s going to be forced to eat crow on his “Murrica is best, we’re number 1” philosophy if he expects any real help from a European partner, especially one with Ferrari’s prickly pride (arrogance).

    Next on the list of “dramatic realisations anyone with f1 experience could have told him” will probably be that it really *does* cost that much to go f1 racing, followed by f1 is an awfully terrible place for marketing opportunities.

    He’s undoubtedly a successful man but his whole enterprise this far has been “announce first, think later”. That’s not going to work out for him, I don’t think.

  10. GB (@bgp001ruled)
    12th June 2014, 5:30

    Haas is either deluded or ridiculous!!!! what an arrogant fool!!!! at least I hope it is really pathetic the way he goes down, since his arrogant delusion, his complete lack of a sense of reallity is really annoying!!!! three years tops…
    and dont worry, Sauber: we wont forget about Formula… Formula… we wont forget about your formula while we scream GOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLL!!!!!!!!!!

    1. You can call him arrogant, deluded and ridiculous.

      But as a fan of F1 I think hoping a team fails is only hoping to hurt yourself…

      1. GB (@bgp001ruled)
        12th June 2014, 16:57

        agree! i was happy to have a new team on the greed. and it seemed it would be a midfield team really fast. but the more i hear that guy the more i am convinced he deserves to fail. it is insulting to the other team the way he oversimplifies what F1. if it was so easy, every year (maybe not this one) we would have 11 teams fighting for podiums and that obviously is not the case!

    2. The Sauber photo makes me think of robbing the tyres off of my old Scalextric cars to play Subbuteo

    3. @bgp001ruled – no reason to be rude.

      1. GB (@bgp001ruled)
        12th June 2014, 16:58

        i wasnt, was i?

    4. I cannot make any sense of this comment whatsoever. What do Sauber and goals have to do with Haas?

      1. @hairs they both featured in the round-up and the same comment is being used to comment on both Sauber’s tweet and that article about Haas.

        1. GB (@bgp001ruled)
          12th June 2014, 16:59

          exactly! thanks!

  11. @willwood I think your headline should’ve read “Haas eyes established midfield team for technical partnership.” ;-)

    Seriously though, this guy does sound pretty deluded. I’m not quite sure how he thinks he’s going to magically succeed in F1 with a smaller budget when many more experienced and more clever folks have tried and failed. It would be one thing if a budget cap were imminent, but with the spinelessness exhibited by the FIA in recent years it doesn’t appear the regs are going to level the playing field. If anything with the so called Strategy Group running the show, the midfield is about to be permanently locked in place as the junior league to the big teams’ pro league.

    1. Customer Ferrari car maybe? Less money and “clever” @us_peter

      1. I think people are jumping to the conclusion that success to Haas is winning the WDC in fairly short order compared to other brand new teams in the past. I think success to Haas will be that, as he says, within 3 to 5 years they are competitive, while at the same time will have boosted their Haas CNC machine tool business hugely in Europe and globally.

        Nowhere did I read anything pie in the sky or unrealistic from Haas’ quotes, and of course everything has to play out, so what else is he to say for now? He is realistic that he can’t get sponsors until they have a car to see. He has the ability to put said car together without sponsors, and then once the car is a reality there will be sponsors. That’s just one example of where he is being realistic.

        Will he find some things different than he currently is expecting? No doubt. Is he prepared for that? I’m sure he is. I don’t think he is being unreasonable or unrealistic with anything he has said, and he certainly is not claiming to start winning races and WDC’s right out of the box. But I’m sure he expects to win a lot of business contracts for his CNC machines globally, with a presence in F1. And that will be success to Haas, even if many think success only comes from winning a WDC, and he’ll sure have fun taking on this challenge and going racing in the meantime. It’s what he does.

        1. Well said.

        2. GB (@bgp001ruled)
          12th June 2014, 18:25

          in one of the first interviews he gave, he said he wanted to compete for wins. or for podiums, i dont remember well. saying something like that is idiotic. he was implying doing that fast: i dont recall a number of years, though. but he is so sure that he will invent sugary water it is ridiculous. anything he tries has been tried before and probably failed! the only way to be a top team is by throwing lots and lots of money at the car! the only way (or using loophes in the regs)…

          1. GB (@bgp001ruled)
            13th June 2014, 0:28

            loopholes!

      2. @bascb I’m sure you’re right, that that’s what he means… but I’m just not sure how that’s going to make him competitive when Ferrari themselves are barely competitive and surely running a customer car or a technology sharing type setup is not likely to result in him outperforming the team he’s buying from.

        Don’t misunderstand me, I’d love to see an American team succeed in F1, but I’m highly skeptical of the way he’s going about it basing the team in the US. Success in F1 is all about the people, and recruiting the people with the experience he’ll need is going to be very difficult from where he is. I hope he proves me wrong though, it would be great for F1 in the US, and the sport in general.

        1. Nope, not competetive as in able to pose a challenge for the championship in any way (when has a Ferrari customer team ever been), but sure enough able to dice for the lower points and thereby make it easier to finance.

          But really, after all the big talk about somehow being cleverer than everyone currently in F1 and doing it better, from the USA and for less money, its quite a disappointment if they don’t even try on really building a car themselves. No hotshot engineers out of the F1 (or even sportscars) is going to move over to the US.

          Yeah, having a solid US team would be a big boost to the sport.

    2. Here is a guy who started as a mechanic and now owns a multi billion $ engineering business as well as a partnership in a successful NASCAR racing team and commenters on this site are questioning his intelligence and thinking they are smarter than him, unbelievable.

      1. @hohum well how do you know they didn’t start as janitors and worked their way up to ceo of red bull technologies ;)

        I agree with you, it’s the same talk about many things actually… Many people deal in back and whites, as in a driver is a god or he sucks and cheats, never any nuance. Example: Vettel/Hamilton/Alonso is not a driving god, nor is he a complete mess… Haas is not a Racing god, nor is he an idiot, the future results will land somewhere between the two extremes, and it’s difficult to know where as a couch expert (or even as a real expert)

      2. not questioning his intelligence @hohum. Rather its not uncommon for a successfull entrepreneur who has dabbled successfully in racing to want to make a step up. In the 1960-1990s it even was possible, provided they found the right partners to do it (didn’t Ron dennis also start out as a mechanic?).
        But doing it nowadays is most likely very tough. And handicapping yourself by having to do it without being able to tap into the F1 engineering pool by basing it in the US makes it even harder. Off course if Ferrari build a more competative package and Haas gets a customer car kit, he will achieve some results. But then, how does that fulfill the idea of doing it from the US?

        1. @bascb, you are the last commentator I would criticise on this or most subjects, I was referring to words and phrases like “deluded” “arrogant fool” “Yanks can do it better”. Of course it will be hard but it has been done before, Guy Gurney and his American Eagle team were quite successful, at least in brand awarness if not in titles, I hear nothing in what G.Haas says that suggests arrogance, foolishness, or even unrealistic expectations.

          1. Oh, yeah, I certainly agree that that kind of comments just do not make sense, apart from proving who is deluded (likely to be the poster writing the comment) @hohum.
            I do think its unrealistic because of how F1 works nowadays, but on the other hand, I would be pleasantly surprised and think its great for the sport if Haas can manage to pull that off.

  12. That Red Bull video may have some cheesy dialogue in it, but it has gotten me quite excited about the return to the Red Bull Ring, I have always had a real soft spot for it. Sure it pales in insignificance compared to the original Osterreichring, but it is a real old school circuit, none of your modern “endless-string-of-90-degree-corners-linked-by-two-kilometer-long-straighs-and-oh-my-goodness-it-is-a-hairpin-which-must-mean-it-is-an-overtaking-opportunity” stuff. It is a a nice mix of a few long drags, some camber and elevation changes and some medium to high speed corners. Lovely.

  13. ‘Customer car’ rules will be relaxed from 2015 to allow teams to buy more parts from other outfits – a new opportunity Haas intends to make the most of.

    Makes me think about how Hesketh outperformed the works March team, only to not find sponsors and fold.

    1. @davidnotcoulthard I thought that Lord Hesketh had tried to finance the team entirely on his own.

      1. @cjpdk I think he then ran out of money and attempts that were then made to secure sponsorship failed.

        I think I watched/read that somewhere.

  14. Sometimes I just wonder why those rich countries don’t have Tilke build circuits on mountains (or their feet).

    Tarmac run-offs isn’t among those problems, though.

    1. Never mind the run-off thing.

  15. The more and more I see of this Perez and Massa crash, the more I think it’s Massa’s fault for running to close to Perez’s car and making that illogical move to the right. Why would you move to the right when you’ve clearly made up your mind to overtake that driver on that corner???

    I’m shocked with the decision given by the stewards. If they weren’t sure then just deem it a racing incident. Perez did not deserve that penalty.

    1. Because everyone goes right at that part of the track. Perez didn’t stick to the racing line, he left the racing line in the braking zone. That’s a no no.

    2. I don’t know, at first I though it should be regarded just a racing incident.
      Also I think for these kind of things, is there really a reason to punish, as it ended both their races when they could have had a very decent points finish. On the other hand, if the stewards look into it and find one at fault, especially if he goes on to argue he did nothing wrong for ever afterwards, then it probably needs a penalty to sink in.

    3. @todfod – for me it was the other way around. I thought Perez simply covered the inside line by opening up earlier in the right bender and Massa just tried to squeeze him further to the right so he can take the dive. But reviewing if frame by frame revealed to me that Perez’ move was right before the braking zone and he committed too late – Massa could have avoided the crash by paying more attention (like Seb did in the same incident) but I wouldn’t blame him for causing it.

      1. @tmf42

        I would have agreed with you if there was no driver in front of Perez. Perez was right behind Seb at that time and it’s perfectly normal for a driver not to stay perfectly behind someone going into a corner. Massa should have seen that

  16. So can we expect Adrian to crash again?

  17. In reply to COTD saying it takes a while to get used to a new team, a certain Mr Button didn’t take long in the Mclaren did he winning Aus 2010 in his very first race for them

  18. The Autoweek article demonstrates once more how out of touch Ecclestone is with modern reality.

    “[RTL] said it is surprising that across everything they do, television ratings are down. Why? Because people have only got so much time. They are using Facebook, Twitter … there are so many things people can watch. You see the ratings have gone down, but in the end they will go back to watching television,” Ecclestone added.

    Firstly, it’s not necessarily the case that they will go back to watching television, at least not in the traditional sense. These days punters expect flexibility. Getting up on Sunday to watch a GP at 5am so you can benefit from the live timing is fine when you don’t have other commitments, family etc. But ideally I’d be able to re-run the whole thing including timing synchronised to the TV pictures at a time convenient to me (this might help with scheduling issues such as the perennial Malaysia/afternoon thunderstorm thing).

    Secondly, he obviously doesn’t realise that TV/Twitter/FB isn’t an either/or but that people use their smartphones and tablets or even old-fangled PCs to do the social thing WHILE watching TV. (Personally I prefer “dark social” interactions, a.k.a. talking directly to whoever happens to be in the room, but I don’t seem to be representative of anything.)

    Domination of one team/driver or another is bound to result in some level of bias which will be reflected in viewing figures across territories, but F1 is also to blame for not exploiting the combinations of media that are possible these days by coming up with innovative comms packages. Perhaps they need a Strategy Working Group for that.

  19. People here are being too harsh on Haas. He seems to know what he is doing, and maybe he will learn about F1 the hard way, but he simply said he was in talks with Ferrari and Mercedes. How this is arrogance or anything is beyond me. And Forza Rossa is understood to be in talks not with Ferrari, so who knows what will happen.

    Time will tell, and it could work for Haas if he plays his cards right.

  20. Haas seeks an alliance. I think the only thing he’ll accomplish is a vassalage.

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