Haas: 2021 will be difficult but I’m optimistic about the future

The Ferrari customer team endured a tough 2020 campaign, finishing ninth in the standings overall with just three points in total.

Their struggles can be put down to a lack of development and the issues with the Ferrari power-unit and while there is hope that there will be some improvement this season, Haas are likely to face a struggle to move up the grid.

Team principal Guenther Steiner has already admitted that new designer Simone Resta will be predominantly focused on the 2022 sporting regulations, while the new development token system and the larger number of frozen components mean that the 2021 cars will have a lot of carryover from 2020.

"I’m optimistic about the future," Haas said. "I know that this year’s going to be difficult because we basically have the same car as last year, and the power plant from Ferrari is going to be very similar to last year, so we know that’s not going to give us any competitive advantage.

"So I think that we have the mindset of realizing our position is always going to be probably three of four positions behind Ferrari. It kind of tells us where we’re going to be racing.

“And that’s OK, this is Formula 1, the pinnacle of motor racing. We know we’re not going to be beating any of the Mercedes teams, so we just have to take what we have and learn to make the best of what we’ve got, which isn’t bad. This whole sport is a lot more than just the engineering challenges and the engine development and all that stuff, it’s also participating in races and drivers and the whole other aspect of the glory of Formula 1 racing. Which is fun.”

F1 has introduced a new cost cap for the start of the 2021 season aimed at levelling the playing field and making the sport more cost-effective, a move that should be good news for teams like Haas.

The American outfit have one of the smaller budgets in the sport and were unable to bring updates to their car last season as a result.

Asked about the future of the team amid speculation he could be looking to sell, Haas said that they were "financially stable" and guaranteed to "be around for the next five years".

“We’ve got a lot of things changing in 2022 and 2023, so we’re in holding-type mode of, let’s see what we’re going to do here," he added.

"But we’re also very financially stable. I didn’t have to mortgage my real estate or my race shop or any of that stuff. We’re not doing what some of the other teams do and mortgage everything they have to go racing. We’re just operating on the money and budgets we have, and we can do that very successfully. So that guarantees us that at least we will be around for the next five years."