Haas F1 on schedule

Guenther Steiner doesn't rate American drivers and has no plans to hire one for the American team

After deferring its entry by a year, Haas F1 Team is poised to join the grid next season. GPUpdate.net caught up with Team Principal Guenther Steiner to discuss progress, potential drivers and early targets.

With entry granted in April last year, Steiner has since been working tirelessly to establish operations, secure technical deals and hire key personnel. If there are no amendments, the outfit is seven months away from the opening pre-season test of 2016, with the season itself kicking off four weeks later.

While current Formula 1 teams are enjoying a four-week summer break, Haas F1 remains hard at work as it bids to tick off a sizeable checklist and hit the ground running.

"I would say it's progressing to plan," Steiner, previously of Jaguar and Red Bull, explains to GPUpdate.net. "Some things are a little bit behind, some things are a little bit ahead, but in general we are in the plan. There are a lot of small headaches but no big ones, so I think everything is pretty stable.

"We're getting more and more people; we're recruiting heavily at the moment. Most people have one, three or sixth month notice periods, so these people will join in a few months. Car development is pretty good as well, so hopefully in a few weeks we'll start to make our own parts.

"It's all flat out because, as you know, we can work over the shutdown period, so we don't have to stop. We keep on working, we keep on digging."

Haas F1 currently operates out of three countries; the US, alongside its sister NASCAR team in Kannapolis; the UK, at the former Marussia base in Banbury; and Italy, through its collaboration with chassis manufacturer Dallara and full technical partnership with Ferrari.

The core responsibilities are broken down, with administration, CFD engineering and the machine shop on the US side, the race team and logistics in the UK, and design and aerodynamic development in Italy.

Although challenging to manage, Steiner, who is constantly travelling between and working to all three time zones, is adamant that the concept can work.

"It's pretty good," he says, when asked about the communication between the various bases. "It's again down to people. If you can get people to understand what's happening, that they need to use media equipment to communicate… it's basically incentivizing to speak between each other.

"I'm going back and forward all the time at the moment, so I'm present in all three places between two weeks. If you ask me, 'Would it be easier to be in one big place?' Absolutely. But could we do what we are doing in one big place, with how we are set up with our technical partner?

"You always have to have a downside. Look at Toyota – they had 1,000 people in one place [in Cologne] and it didn't work. We need to make it work."

Haas F1's technical partnership with Ferrari, which includes the supply of power units, gearboxes and general support, is also ramping up – a process Steiner explains is relatively smooth given the Italian marque's previous and existing supply deals.

"We're now in the process of making production and delivery planning," he says. "They have good people there to do that. They know how to do it, because they have been supplying other teams with the power unit. They know the concept, they just have to expand it a little bit, but they are putting a good effort in.

"We are also using the Ferrari wind tunnel for our aerodynamic development program. We are doing a lot of testing. It's working fine – we are in every second week.

"It's now getting interesting because finally we're talking about the car. Sometimes, not all the time yet! But that is why we are doing it, to make a car. Now for a year we've just put an infrastructure up and employed people. We talk about the concept of the car but never speak about the parts on the car and we're at that stage now."

Steiner believes that working with a partner in such a way is crucial to competing efficiently in modern-day Formula 1, given the complexity of the current technical regulations.

Of the last group of teams to enter in 2010 – Hispania Racing, Lotus Racing and Virgin Racing – only one is active to this day, and that is under a modified guise after it fell into administration.

"The biggest thing we learned is that we need a partner to do this," he says, referring to the struggles of the teams mentioned above. "Never say never, but it's so difficult to start these things by yourself. These cars are very challenging, technological beasts.

"If we make a steering rack, would it be any better than the Ferrari or the Mercedes one? No. But would it take two guys three years to make it reliable and as good? Yes. And how much does that cost? Would it make a difference in performance? No way. We want to focus on going racing."

That leads on to the question of who will be driving the cars. Given their Ferrari roles, former Toro Rosso and Sauber racers Jean-Eric Vergne and Esteban Gutiérrez have been heavily linked to the team, and there is also talk of a driver currently competing in Formula 1 potentially making the switch.

Founder Gene Haas recently stated that the team is working to a list of 10 names, and Steiner makes clear that this remains the case, with any favorites yet to emerge from the group.

"We are thinking, we are talking with people, but we haven't made a decision," he comments. "It is what Gene said; we've got a big list and we want to try to make the best decision we can. It takes a little bit of time. But hopefully by the end of the summer we will have something to announce.

"Sometimes you've made a decision but you cannot announce it because maybe the driver is in a contract and it cannot be said, so I'm not brave enough to give a date.

"I think you can come up with the 10 drivers we speak with. It's quite easy to get them. But we haven't got the favorites or anything in place now. Sure, people jump to the conclusion that because we are close with Ferrari, and Gutiérrez and Vergne are Ferrari drivers… but we will see, it's still a work in progress."

When pushed on the exact qualities desired by the team, Steiner outlines: "A guy who is still in his 20s, but is experienced and has driven these cars would be ideal for us. Everything is new – the team is new, the car is new, so we need a known quantity in the mix.

"So if there is something, what is it? Is it the car, the driver, the team? If you know the driver, that he has done a good job before, you take him out of the equation and ask him to work with you to fix the problem or identify what we can do next to get better."

Identifying problems and attempting to resolve them will inevitably be a major part of Haas F1's debut season in Formula 1, with only eight pre-season test days – as opposed to 12 in recent years – to assess the initial package and work through a packed program.

But Steiner remains confident that the team will be able to give a good account of itself from the outset, and even challenge to get on the scoreboard.

"It's all so difficult to predict because you don't know how good the opposition is; you're trying to hit a moving target," says Steiner. "But we want to be respectable and we want to get some points."

If Haas F1 Team achieves these initial targets, it will no doubt act as a further boost to a nation and sport still recovering from Indygate and the failed USF1 attempt. GPUpdate