Haas Formula: 2015 or 2016 but with a Dallara chassis

Yesterday, a press conference was held in Kannapolis, North Carolina, by Gene Haas to present the main outlines of his Formula 1 team project. While everything still needs to be built, the American businessman does not want to rush or waste money. Here are the various points discussed during this meeting with the media.

You can find the second part of this conference in this article.

An arrival in 2015 or 2016?

Gene Haas has not hidden that he would like to be on the grid as soon as possible, but does not want to miss his entry into the discipline: « I would like to start in 2015, simply because the first year is going to be a tough year, no matter what. »

He is also aware that everything will not happen in one day: « It’s a very big challenge, and part of the learning is just getting on the track and setting up the logistics from one race to another, and the sooner we learn that, the sooner we will have it sorted. »

« It’s one of those things we will discover in the coming weeks, and in four weeks, hopefully, we should have an idea about the year we are aiming for, » he explained before concluding on this point: « 2015 is too close and 2016 is too far away. »

Premises, the most urgent

Before even considering the technical questions, facilities are needed to plan the establishment of the team: Ideally, the headquarters will be in Kannapolis, says Gene Haas. There might be a smaller office in Italy or Germany to assemble and disassemble the cars. It will depend on who our technology partner will be. That would be the logistics we would use.

However, nothing is certain on this last point: Nothing is set in stone yet, we will be flexible, we will do what is necessary, and we will be efficient.

More specifically, regarding the premises used for the headquarters, they will adjoin those of the NASCAR team in Kannapolis: « What we are going to do is take part of the building, it will be the headquarters for F1. That’s the first thing we are going to work on. »

Choose an engine supplier to rely on

Once the matter of installations is advanced, the next essential step will be the choice of the engine supplier, who, since this season, is a true technical partner given the various systems integrated into an F1 car: « The next thing to do is to sit down and have some very serious negotiations with our partners. There are currently three engine suppliers in Formula 1 – Renault, Mercedes, and Ferrari – so we need to select the partner with whom to work. »

« And that’s an important part of all this, finding who can provide us with the technical expertise we need. We’re going to do something very similar to what we do in NASCAR, that is a partnership like with Hendrick Motorsport where we can rely on them for great technical expertise. We don’t hide it: we are new, there will be a long learning phase. »

In NASCAR, the Stewart-Haas Racing team has a partnership with the Hendrick team for engine preparation. Hendrick Motorsport notably runs Jimmie Johnson, six-time champion of the discipline between 2006 and 2013, as well as Jeff Gordon, four-time champion between 1995 and 2001.

Gene Haas does not want to rush the process and is aware of the time it will take to be competitive: « Sitting here and saying that we will be able to understand what will happen with these cars in a year or two is not reasonable. It will take us time to learn and we will rely heavily on a technical partner to help us. »

A Dallara chassis before a Haas chassis

As announced at the launch of the candidacy, Haas Formula will indeed rely on Dallara, the Italian constructor, for the production of its first chassis: « We have had preliminary discussions with Dallara and they are ready. They have full facilities, they have the experience, they have been involved in motorsports for as long as I can remember. »

« It would be insurmountable to say that we will manage to manufacture a chassis ourselves and hire all the people in 9 months, » he admitted. « We will have to find a compromise on what we are going to do regarding the construction of the car and acquire everything we can. »

The goal will eventually be to build our own chassis for Formula 1: « We want to learn. We are not just going to go there and say “build us a chassis,” we want to place people there to learn the processes because our ultimate goal is to become a constructor. »

« Our [first] car will not be entirely the Haas Formula car, a large part of the technology will come from our partners to begin with. But we will learn and discover, and ultimately, the car will become ours. We can beat the Europeans at their own game, » stated Gene Haas.

(Continued here)