The Haas Formula One team is like no other currently on the grid today. The team was formed quickly for the 2016 season and set about a new approach to designing and building an F1 car.

A partnership with Ferrari saw Haas buy not just engines but other mechanical components vital to the running of the car in line with the FIA’s prescribed ‘listed parts’ exemptions. 

Much of the rest of the car is outsourced to Italian company Dallara and while the other teams perform this in house due to FIA intellectual property rules, Haas third party arrangement fulfils the governing bodies criteria even though their deigns are not ‘in house.’

 

 

 

Haas ‘kit car’ F1 approach

Teams like Williams were concerned with this ‘kit car’ approach when Haas joined the grid, particularly in 2018 when the team came home fifth in the constructors’ championship. Yet over the years Haas found its place between P8 and P10 at the end of each season as the team lurched from crisis to crisis.

Part of the problem is the team are underfunded and unlike Williams now do not have the ability to spend up to the cost cap allowance as set out by the FIA. Gene Haas admitted last year he has had offers of investment, but isn’t interested in selling and in Nico Hulkenberg they have a driver who has hauled them up to seventh half way through the 2024 season.

One option would be for Gene to sell the team outright and with Andretti waiting in the wings, this wold seem a natural solution for the man who made big claims prior to entering F1. Prior to the team’s debut at pre-season testing in 2016, Gene Haas boldy told reporters, “We’re here to win races, not to do it the hard way.”

Haas also admitted his F1 entrance was driven by another motivation: “Our sales thrust here is to sell more machine tools. We are doing this more as a challenge to market our products and be involved in the races,” Haas revealed.

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Haas experiment with drivers

Experiments with rookie drivers like Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin failed because while the drivers brought in significant sponsorship their skill sets were inexperienced, something Gunther Steiner reversed when bringing back Kevin Magnussen and recruiting Nico Hulkenberg.

In his second year with the underfunded American team, Hulkenberg decided his future prospects were better at the Sauber/Audi project despite the teams current poor run of form. Kick Sauber sit bottom of the table with neither Valtteri Bottas or Zhou Guangu having scored a single point in the first half of the season.

Now ex-team boss Gunther Steiner comments on the option to sell to Andretti, though Michael and Gene have ‘history’ in other racing series in North America. While Mario is a racing legend on both sides of the pond his son Michael has upset people along their journey to join F1.

The Andretti application to F1 was scrutinised for months by the FIA and eventually given the green light. However the teams don’t want another competitor on the grid and through FOM rejected the proposal on ‘commercial grounds.’

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Andretti upset senior F1 personnel

The wannabe F1 team were told to go away and come back when backer General Motors has built a new 2026 specification power unit, which is estimated to take until 2028. Despite this setback, Andretti have set up a base in Silverstone and recruited around 100 people, most recently Pat Symonds – who was has had success as a senior engineer with various teams, working with Michael Schumacher.

Symonds quit his role this year as the FIA’s Technical Officer to become Andretti’s executive engineering consultant as the team prepare for as yet undefined F1 entrance.

While Andretti were knocking on the door, Michael sought to hustle F1 team principals into signing a letter to the FIA which recommended they were admitted as the eleventh team. This together with him calling out them as “afraid” of competition did not go down well in the infamous piranha club.

More recently during the Miami Grand Prix weekend this year, the Andretti cause was highlighted again when a number of US Senators wrote to the US Justice department calling for an investigation into “anti-competitive” practices of Formula One.

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Liberty exec insults Mario

So incensed were the commercial rights owners of F1, that CEO Greg Maffei stormed up to Mario on the grid outside the Dolphins Stadium stating: “‘Mario, I want to tell you that I will do everything in my power to see that Michael [Andretti] never enters Formula 1’,” as CBS reported.

On the potential sale of Haas to Andretti, ex-team boss Guenther Steiner gives his thoughts stating, “I think it’s a little bit late to navigate. To get out of that it will be very difficult because when you go somewhere to upset or disagree with so many people, it’s difficult to make up for that.

“If I want to be invited to a party, I need to be nice. If I upset the bouncer, he doesn’t let me in,” said the Haas ex-boss.

Yet the teams have no control over who buys another F1 competitor, although the FIA do some due diligence. Yet given the FIA have approved the Andretti entry, it would be difficult for them to back track over them buying out Gene Haas.

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Gene Haas ‘whimsical’

However, the whimsical nature of Gene is explained by Steiner, who reflects on his eight year’s in charge of Haas F1. When asked whether he would consider selling to Andretti, he replied: “I couldn’t answer that,” he said. “I was there a long time and I still don’t know what he wants to do.

“I didn’t know last year, I didn’t know two years ago and I don’t know what he thinks of the long term. I’m not avoiding the question, I just don’t know what he thinks because he could be thinking something today and something different tomorrow.”

So from Steiner’s perspective Gene Haas could sell – or maybe not – but if someone who worked directly for the man for almost a decade doesn’t know how Gene thinks from day to day, what hope is there for the team?

The rejection of Andretti who will design and build their own F1 cars while Haas continues with his ‘kit car’ experiment – is farcical to many F1 fans. While Sauber/Audi and Williams are pouring in hundreds of millions to develop their facilities, Gene Haas remains to have faith in a model which in time will become outdated and see his team rooted permanently to the bottom of the table.

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McLaren are the Formula One team turnaround story of the decade.  Having scored just seventeen points after eight rounds in 2023, they brought an upgraded car to the Red Bull Ring which saw Lando Norris almost double their points in one outing.

For the remainder of the year Norris outscored every other driver besides Max Verstappen and the team outscored both Mercedes and Ferrari having been lurking in the lower reaches of the constructors’ table.

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