Five-year plan for Haas? Survival

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Date: 24th October 2014 at 9:24am
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In the midst of turmoil at Caterham, you could forgive Gene Haas some inevitable second thoughts on entering Formula One.

Since 2010, three new teams have entered F1 and following the collapse of the Hispania/HRT team, it unfortunately looks like Caterham are on the brink.

Marussia, Lotus and Sauber are also known to have had recent issues with their finances.

But despite this precarious climate for Formula One, the Hass F1 team are set to join the grid for 2016.

The American team, founded by owner Gene Haas has confirmed that they have signed a technical partnership with Ferrari, which will see the fledgling Formula One team run with Ferrari?s V6 turbo engine, energy-recovery systems, gearbox as well as receiving technical support.

?Ferrari wanted to go beyond being just an engine supplier and they were going to help us with the basic structures of the car, It’s an honour to have Ferrari help us in this way and we take all the help they can give us because you can’t really get better than Ferrari.’ Hass told Sky Sports.

Haas has had many years in American motor racing, he co-owned the Indy Car team Newman-Haas which 1992 Formula One World Champion Nigel Mansell won the 1993 title with and alongside Tony Stewart, he now owns a team in USA’s top motor sport series NASCAR.

He’s also affiliated with Guenther Steiner, a former technical director at Red Bull and Jaguar and will bring a fresh approach to the Formula One grid.

A lot of talk has been made of Hass basing themselves in America and aiming to beat the Europeans at their own game, but in the immediate future. It’s all about survival for the new team.

?I think in the first five years it?s just surviving. I don?t have any expectations of grandeur that we?re going to go out there and win championships. If we could even win one race in five races that?d be a tremendous success,? he told CNN.

?Just the association of being with Formula 1 basically takes our brand from nobody to in the stratosphere. Sooner or later we?ll march up. I?m not expecting to beat anybody, just maybe beat the guys at the back.?