Haas Formula: Kurt Busch future test driver…?

The team Haas Formula will join the starting grid of the Formula 1 World Championship, likely next season. Several questions, which should be answered in the coming weeks, remain unanswered, such as the engine supplier or the drivers.

But some have questioned the seriousness of Gene Haas’s candidacy, relying on the US F1 venture, which was stillborn at the end of the 2000s. Who better to judge the seriousness of the NASCAR Stewart-Haas Racing team founder than one of his drivers in the American series, Kurt Busch: « It’s going to be an incredible challenge. He knows that. » He doesn’t doubt his boss’s seriousness for a moment: « He’s serious. You don’t spend 40 million dollars on a wind tunnel if you’re not serious about auto racing. »

Indeed, Gene Haas is the owner of one of the most modern wind tunnels on the planet – the Windshear wind tunnel, located in Concord, North Carolina – which, since its opening in 2008, has hosted various teams from NASCAR, IndyCar, and even Formula 1. Another sign of its seriousness is that his application was supported, notably, by Günther Steiner, former technical director of Jaguar and later of Red Bull.

Kurt Busch, on his side, has been a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver since 2000 and has been engaged full-time in the discipline since 2001. He has been with several teams, such as Roush Racing, with which he won his only championship title in 2004, and Penske Racing—another team that tried its luck in F1 in the 1970s. Since the beginning of his career, he has been considered one of the bad boys of the discipline, both on and off the track.

Since the beginning of the season, he joined Stewart-Haas Racing, achieving the 25th victory of his career at the end of March on the Martinsville circuit. He’s also taking on a bold challenge: attempting to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 miles, like Jacques Villeneuve, on behalf of Andretti Autosport.

According to him, the commitment and success of Haas in the premier category will also depend on the support of the fans: “It’s a matter of fans who need to be behind it, supporting Gene and trying to give F1 another chance. We had Michael Andretti, before him it was his father. We had Scott Speed as a driver. Now, we have an owner,” he stated to *Associated Press*.

“It will be interesting to see how the driver duo will be constituted,” he says. At 35, could Kurt Busch be interested in such an adventure? No, but having fun behind the wheel of a Formula 1, why not: “My time has passed for being a competitive driver in an F1. But a test session? I would jump in the car every time! They will have a hard time keeping me out of the garage, hanging around in it.”

Currently, the only American driver to have tasted a Formula 1 seat in recent years was Alexander Rossi, reserve driver for the Caterham team. The last driver from the United States to have raced in a Grand Prix was Scott Speed, in 2007, for Toro Rosso, during the famous and rainy European GP at the Nürburgring circuit.