Haas Team Owner "Really Embarrassed' By Weak Results Despite Strong Ferrari Support

Friday, 12 January 2024 at 11:00

Gene Haas recently admitted he felt embarrassed by his team's results, given that Haas receives power units and multiple car components from successful teams like Ferrari.

In F1, there are teams that produce every single part of their cars themselves - Mercedes, Ferrari, or Alpine. And then, there are teams that outsource some car components (most often power units) from these major teams.

Being one of the smallest teams on the grid, Haas's business model from day one was to outsource as much as possible from Ferrari and just make the rest of their car work.

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However, the team has not been particularly successful in doing so. In eight years of competing in Formula One, the American team has mainly competed at the back of the grid and hasn't achieved a single podium.

Speaking to Formula1.com after the departure of his long-term team principal Geanther Steiner, Gene Haas also talked about his collaboration with Ferrari:

"Ferrari has been very good to us. They have been with us since day one, they build incredible engines. Their suspension is extremely good. We have been using a lot of their hardware. It works really well. They really do help us."

While he described how Ferrari helped his team, Gene Haas is aware that Ferrari was, for the most part of the season, the second-best team while his team was stuck in the last place.

"I’m embarrassed that we haven’t been able to do better with it, but going forward, I want to take advantage of good equipment that a lot of other teams don’t have."

The American team owner also mentioned that the bad performances were the major reason behind his team principal's departure. He wants the team to get closer to Ferrari, and that has not happened in the last couple of years.

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"We’re very happy to stay with Ferrari. I hope we can help them in terms of reliability. But we have got to do better. We can’t be running so far behind Ferrari. We need to be closer to them."

Many experts blamed Haas's position on the grid for the team's low budget, but the team owner believes his team has enough resources and should be able to utilize what they have better.

"I think we’ve actually got a great formula here. We have Ferrari engines, which probably have more power than anybody right now."

As Haas outsources many of their components from the team that is running in the second or third place, they know that the problem is not in the outsourced components. The team owner suggested his team struggles mostly with aero at the moment and that needs to be changed:

"We have Ferrari hardware [as per the permitted listed parts within the regulations], we have a good chassis. I talk to a lot of the engineers and I think our biggest failing is aero; our aero programme needs work. When you’re at the track and you’re humiliated every weekend, I’m going to stop taking that one anymore."