Haas Not Interested In Investors' Money Despite Not Using All Of Budget Cap

Friday, 12 January 2024 at 21:00

The team owner of the Haas Formula One team, Gene Haas, explained why he isn't interested in raising money from investors despite his team not using all of the budget caps.

A budget cap has been introduced into F1 so the big teams like Mercedes, Red Bull, or Ferrari cannot outspend smaller teams like, for example, Haas, Williams, or Sauber/Stake.

The budget cap, along with wind tunnel allocations, was supposed to allow the small teams to catch up with the top of the field. However, three years under the budget cap have passed, and Haas is still dead last.

The team owner, Heseld, recently admitted Haas has not been able to fill the budget cap. On the other hand, he said he sees it as no reason for not placing better in the Championship. He told Formula 1:

"We need to do better. It’s easier to keep sponsors and attract sponsors if we’re a mid-pack team and not a dead last team. That’s my perspective on it. At the same time, if we can run a little faster, we’ll get more FOM [Formula One Management] money, which will make life a bit easier."

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Haas would have received around $18 million more in prize money if the team finished just two positions higher. The team owner stated his team had usually been within $10 million of the budget cap, so the prize money might have made a real difference.

"It’s really all about winning. We have a great team, we have great engines, we have really great drivers. There’s no reason why we are 10th. I can’t understand how we can be with all the equipment and people we have."

The 71-year-old explained he does not want to deal with mentality and pressure from the outside investors who obviously buy-in to make money and not because of their love for motorsport.

"What their [investors'] job is, they want to buy into you, and five years later they want to make a $100m profit. Quite frankly, I don’t need that kind of oversight, from people who come in with $200m – it’s not enough to entice me to do that."

The team owner is quite right about how his team could earn much more money with a better Championship position. However, the question remains whether it is possible to get into that position without using all of the budget cap.