Haas: F1 project taking longer to accomplish than we thought

Although approved by the FIA to enter Formula 1 in 2015, it is increasingly unlikely that Team Haas will be on the grid next year, but are rather more likely to make their debut in 2016.

Italian media are reporting that the United States based outfit, owned by NASCAR team owner Gene Haas, is in the process of setting up a deal with Dallara to provide the chassis and Ferrari the V6 turbo power units.

Haas told Autoweek, “It just seems that it’s taking longer to accomplish what we wanted to do than we thought. It’s already June so it’s just seven months away and the timing issues are starting to get real crazy. We have a list of names [of people we want to hire], but the problem is that a lot of times they’re already working for somebody and they can’t get out of their contracts for three to six months so there’s a lot of those contractual issues that have to be resolved before someone can come over.”

During the Indianapolis weekend, the project’s newly appointed Team Principal Guenther Steiner (formerly with Jaguar and Red Bull in F1) said: “We will [soon] make the final decision, but we’ll probably ditch the one-year program to improve the organisation, as this perhaps is the most appropriate way forward.”

Despite what would be a one year delay Steiner is adamant the F1 programme will happen, “In North Carolina [at Stewart-Haas Racing headquarters] we have enlarged our facility for this new commitment. With Dallara we are defining the type of collaboration, but the project will be ours, they should play the role of technical consultants.

“We have not yet hired a designer, technical director, but these decisions will be made shortly,” added Steiner.

Dallara CEO Andrea Pontremoli told Autosprint, “We are still talking [to Haas], but at the moment there is still nothing signed, no written agreement. This is an essential factor to start any type of technical co-operation.” (GP247)