NASCAR owner confirms Formula 1 entry

As previously revealed by Formula One supremo Bernie Eccelstone, American Gene Haas has been granted a place on the F1 grid from 2015.

New teams in Formula One are rare, since 2002, only Toyota, Super Aguri, Caterham, Marussia and HRT have entered the sport with only Caterham and Marussia remaining on the grid with both teams going three full seasons without scoring a single world championship point.

The FIA announced in December that they had opened the tendering process for a new team to enter Formula One.

The Formula One paddock shrank to eleven teams after the former Hispania/HRT team dissolved at the end of the 2012 season.

It brought an end to the team after just two seasons and whilst Caterham and Marussia, who also entered F1 in 2011, appear to be doing well at the back end of the grid, they too have had financial issues and have previously held merger talks.

In fact financial problems are not just affecting the teams at the tail end of the grid, Sauber have struggled on and off for a number of years, whilst the Lotus team have also struggled in recent months.

Unfortunately the poor financial state of Formula One has brought the sport to the point where over the winter many in the media were speculating that one or even several teams could have failed to make it through to the start of the new 2014 season.

Thankfully this was not the case and talk about the prospect of three driver teams in the future has been muted since last seasons Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi and Brazil.

So the news of a ’12th team’ to enter the sport is excellent news, especially a veteran motor sport team like that of American outfit Haas.

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.

‘Obviously, we’re extremely pleased to have been granted a Formula One license by the FIA, It’s an exciting time for me, Haas Automation and anyone who wanted to see an American team return to Formula 1.

‘Now, the really hard work begins. It’s a challenge we embrace as we work to put cars on the grid. I want to thank the FIA for this opportunity and the diligence everyone put forth to see our license application come to fruition.’ Hass told Sky Sports.