“Now the really hard work begins” – Haas

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: New F1 entrant Gene Haas admits all the hard work is ahead of him after being accepted by the FIA to compete in 2015.

F1 Fanatic Live this weekend: Formula Renault 3.5 and IndyCar

F1 Fanatic Live will be running this weekend for the first two races of the new Formula Renault 3.5 season plus the second round of the IndyCar championship from Long Beach. UK times are as follows:

  • Formula Renault 3.5 Monza race one – Saturday, 3:05pm
  • Formula Renault 3.5 Monza race two – Sunday, 11:30am
  • IndyCar Grand Prix of Long Beach – Sunday, 9:30pm

For details of coverage in your area see here. I will be co-commentating on the two Formula Renault 3.5 with Ben Evans for BT Sport:

Links

Your daily digest of F1 news, views, features and more.

Haas thanks FIA after F1 entry confirmation (Adam Cooper’s F1 Blog)

“Now, the really hard work begins. It’s a challenge we embrace as we work to put cars on the grid.”

Haas To Be Confirmed As New Formula One Team On Friday Says Ecclestone (Forbes)

“The FIA’s decision to open the tender surprised F1 insiders as several of the existing teams are barely managing to keep their wheels turning. Budgets have accelerated in recent years and hit an estimated $211 million in 2013.”

Mercedes: drivers must share data (Autosport)

“The open information policy is something that we will always continue to have. It is a rule that both sides of the garage are open and transparent with each other.”

Ron Dennis Q&A: My biggest fear is failure (F1)

“Bernie [Ecclestone] just wants a show and the teams don’t want high costs. Of course, it hasn’t worked out to everybody’s satisfaction, but we’ve got what we’ve got. I strongly feel that any issues should stay in the family and using the media – either as a team or a promoter or track owner or driver – is completely counter-productive to solving problems and addressing the future.”

The Watchmen Part 3: Levelling the playing field (FIA)

FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer: “Of course the teams can run what they like in testing, it’s not regulated, but it is from Melbourne onwards. I saw some things on the cars we wouldn’t accept this year, like spring-loaded flaps. It’s not something they should put on a car. Having a spring action for any mechanism with an aero influence is not permitted.”

Paper Dreams (David Betteridge via Vimeo)

Tweets

Comment of the day

Will the attempt to introduce new teams to the sport go better than it did the last time five years ago?

Whilst it’s good news I can’t help feeling that 2015 is going to be too soon for both teams, more so Forza Rossa if the deal isn’t yet finalised. They’ve basically got 9-10 months to design and build a car, even partnering with Dallara won’t make it easy, HRT ran a Dallara chassis remember. And who will supply them with engines? If Cosworth can get their design in to production they could be branded Ford for the US connection I guess.

One benefit Haas have is that Gene owns a wind tunnel which the team will be able to utilise to develop the Dallara chassis and then design their own for further seasons.

I just hope that this doesn’t end up as a repeat of 2010…
James (@Iamjamm)

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Amy, Ben Thomas and Kyle Puttifer!

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On this day in F1

Happy birthday to 12-time grand prix winner Carlos Reutemann who is 72 today.

Image © NASCAR/Getty

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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63 comments on ““Now the really hard work begins” – Haas”

  1. Donnington 1993 was quite a spectacular performance. But the greatest ever? I guess the jury is out on that one. I personally love the heroism of Fangio to race as he did during the 1957 German Grand Prix, so I would have to rate that as at least one of my personal greatest drives. Donnington is certainly up there too though.

    1. Jim Clark at Spa, 1963 (or 1965; I forget which one he won by 5 minutes), or Jackie Stewart at Nürburgring, 1967; he won the race by 4 minutes with a broken arm

      1. stewart’s was ’68. denny hulme won in ’67 at the nurburgring.

        i think jim clark at monza in ’67 sounds like the best drive ever, but he didn’t win.

    2. It’s a sign of the times, really. I think the people using the internet and watching F1 now weren’t really around for many races pre-80s. I’ve been watching since 1998, but only recently I’ve begun to really appreciate drivers like Elio de Angelis, Alessando Nannini, drivers who didn’t win a lot of races or challenged for championships; because you weren’t initially exposed to them. It’s the same with the older champions/racers and their drives (not to mention Jacky Ickx’ debut at the ring; I hear less and less people talk about him..); if you only read about it, it simply isn’t the same..

    3. You’re forgetting that following the Senna hagiography film, everything must be compared, and found inferior to, Ayrton. Daily. Every day is a memorable “on this day, Senna …” opportunity.

    4. Well, it’s probably alright for McLaren make a little tribute to their late great driver @vettel1 :-)

      I think it is becoming difficult to judge for most of the pre-80’s be cause the coverage is rather poor. I clearly remember being a Stewart fan at age 3 but I certainly don’t recall what the best races were. I don’t think you remember Fangio either….

    5. Also worth noting that the MP4/8 that Senna was driving that day had a boatload of driver aids, many of which were banned at the end of the season. ABS, TC, SC and Active Suspension all made a big difference to his performance.

  2. Daniel (@collettdumbletonhall)
    12th April 2014, 0:33

    I am surprised the drivers don’t like Shanghai. I’ve always rather liked it on games and I can’t remember there being a boring race there for a very long time.

    1. Or at least drivers with slow cars don’t like Shanghai…

      1. Exactly, the Ferrari’s and the Renault’s will be mugged on the loooong back straight even without derz.

      2. It’s not surprising neither driver has fond memories of Shanghai given that neither driver has had much luck there.
        If you look at Grosjean, 2012 was at least a halfway respectable performance (6th place) given he had broken down in qualifying and was only 10th, but he failed to improve on that in 2013 with only 9th place to his name.

        That said, that record is a lot better than Sutil’s record – out of the six Chinese GP’s he’s been in, he’s failed to finish four of them and finished 11th and 15th in the other two races. I can see why he won’t have fond memories of China in those circumstances…

    2. Lol Shanghai gp’s aren’t tainted as Bahrain Gp’s were but you wouldn’t certainly say looking at statistics that the Shanghai gp is one of the top 15 gp’s. Yes, Lewis made a great race there, yes Mark went from last to 3rd but there were some bogeys.

      1. @peartree,

        but there were some bogeys

        I don’t really agree; 2008 was quite boring with Hamilton winning from pole, but since then we’ve had:
        2009: wet race in which Vettel won his first race for Red Bull
        2010: wet race with different early-race strategies
        2011: perhaps 9.4 in rate-the-race is a little overrated, but still a very good race
        2012: Rosberg’s first win and plenty of action for the positions behind first.
        2013: Not a stonker, but still interesting battles like Raikkonen- Hamilton and Vettel’s alternative strategy moving him up the field.

        1. @adrianmorse I’ll be more objective, there’s been a race in Shanghai for 9 year now. The 2011 was a British McLaren 1-2 with an ok dice for the lead, 2012 was a walk on the park, and you didn’t mentioned 05, 06, 07. Bogeys is accurate besides the race is a haze and with little crowd, bad scheduling, a layout that’s the same as Malaysia and therefore not ideal for overtaking.

    3. It’s possible Sutil’s bad memories aren’t just restricted to the track

      1. Hahaha perhaps that may be true.

  3. Some Niki Lauda brilliance today:

    http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113400

    My favorite part:

    Red Bull and [Sebastian] Vettel bored everybody over the last half of the season by winning nine races, and nobody said anything. That is unfair.

    So true! No one ever mentioned that at all! hahahahahahahahaha

    1. Lauda talks some sense . I know he is with mercedes but yeah … give credit where it’s due.

      1. The point made by aka_robyn was that its certainly not as is fans, media and even the sporting authorities never mentioned that being bad for the sport (it even led to knee-jerk stupid rule changes – see Abu Double.) @akshay

  4. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    12th April 2014, 1:54

    I don’t get why some drivers don’t like the Shanghai circuit? Personally I think it’s the best of the first 4 rounds. It’s got long, fast, flowing corners, a massive straight and some tricky off-camber corners as well.

    Personal taste I guess.

    1. Maybe they were bored with Tilkedromes

      1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        12th April 2014, 6:24

        But that’s the thing, as far as Tilkedromes go, Shanghai is a pretty good circuit.

    2. The first corner is ridiculous, though the high speed entry is brilliant, there is no need for a second hairpin immediately after it. After that it is just an army sequence of corners (left-right-left), then an interminable straight followed by a hairpin and a 90 degree corner to finish it off. It’s not a classic.

  5. Wow what a story, great vid.

    1. Nice to see . A Salute to the man !
      I think RBR also deserves credit for picking up a guy with a great sense of design .

    2. Yes. “My job is my hobby” Wow.

      I’m good with financial modeling, what can I do to impress Toto?

  6. For the moment there, I thought Vettel has a genuine fan, but then at the end of the video, I realized this guy actually works for Red Bull, hence the choice of a car to model.

    1. He was given the job at Red Bull because of the model.

  7. That’s not the Vettelfinger(tm), Vettel uses it like an ‘up yours’ with the hand twisted into an offensive gesture.

    1. Well I don’t know if Vettel meant it offensive ;-)
      but yeah the Haas gesture is more of a ” I have a doubt *raises hand*” kind of move

    2. exactly… vettel’s finger is 180 degree rotated version of this one…

    3. Since when is a raised index finger offensive?

      Oh, right, it’s Vettel doing it.

      1. @raceprouk, I find that comment offensive.

      2. I think he means brandished with the back of the hand facing forwards like a more typical offensive gesture. Which does give it a more aggressive sort of ‘up yours’ feel.

        1. @matt90
          Seems for a while now that a large majority of people here can’t read body language because they are always amazed by something fairly obvious. Just because it isn’t verbally stated, doesn’t mean you can’t read it. I mean, isn’t it figured out by now, scientifically, that a huge part of our communication is nonverbal. But as I said, some people insist to be oblivious to it.

        2. Of course, so silly of me to forget an adrenaline-fuelled celebration gesture is such a huge cause of offense.

          Or maybe people could stop being so puritan for a change.

  8. Slackbladder
    12th April 2014, 4:29

    Ah, ha, and there you have it F1 is to become an American Testacular Entertainment Extravaganza right up there with Nascar!!!
    I am boycotting this season!!!

    1. Actually what you are describing sounds good. Some British – Commonwealth commentators and fans don’t get the fact that although Williams and McLaren have history and have added endless richness to the sport, well their names just aren’t memorable. How many people who don’t follow F1 would recognize Williams as a brand. It’s the equivalent of naming an orange drink Orange Drink and McLaren is not far off.

      And I realize all of these names are just peoples surnames but the British ones all sound like Smith. There are advantages to this, and I personally like the Britishness of the sport. But only British or Italian or German – No thank you. Rednecks standing side by side with the aristocratic di Montezemolo at Monaco – Can’t wait!

      1. Mclaren has a huge following in the United States (and world-wide) courtesy of the fabulous Can Am Championship years..

    2. Okay! Goodbye!

    3. It really annoys me how some people are anti American just for the fun of it. I mean really wouldn’t we wanna support any new team coming in? If this was a new team from the UK or something you wouldn’t have comments such as this. It’s really disappointing and sad to me. I really hope that all the naysayers can be proven wrong. USF1 was doomed from the start…..

      1. @Rick

        Anti-Americanism is a product of the way the U.S. government and businesses treat the rest of the world. That said, I am looking forward to an American team getting into F1 and stepping on toes. Do it for the Gipper.

      2. Crikey! You want to try being English then… :)

  9. Thanks for the birthday mention Keith! It’s my 18th today.

    1. You take care of the booze.
      I’ll bring the blackjack and hookers. :)

    2. Have fun mate!

    3. Well, enjoy a party then @pielighter, and light that pie and then blow the candles!

  10. all drivers likes indian gp track but dont know why it never produced enough action. Can anyone tell me why?

  11. Hass is American and their patience is not so good. If they don’t win in the first 2-3 years (they won’t) they’ll be gone by 2018. F1 doesn’t suit American Drivers or team owners in my opinion.

    1. Quite the generalization there. While I am surprised at Haas’ desire to be in F1 with all of it’s issues right now, the fact remains he is motivated, and has now been granted entry, so I trust he has a pretty good idea of what he is in for. I doubt he just found out a few years ago what this whole F1 thing in Europe is…this must have been on his mind for years.

      While I do think this is going to take a lot of money and time for them to get anywhere, I trust that they are well prepared for that reality having witnessed the realities of F1 very closely. I think anyone deserves to put their spin on things if they have the motivation, the money, and the permission.

      Best of luck to them, and it’s going to be a very interesting thing to watch, including how this will affect viewership in the US.

    2. Yes, look at how Corvette quit Le Mans after not winning, or how many teams drop from NASCAR/Indycar annually. /sarcasm

    3. With his huge motor sport experience and contacts, I this Haas has a very good picture of what Formula 1 is and I doubt that in his “business plan” there’s a line suggesting that his F1 team will be WCC before 2018.

      I wish them good luck.

    4. Penske ??

    5. Wow you know it really really bothers me with the way people seem to respond to this. Just because its American it wont succeed or that after a year or two he will give up. People might wanna do a little bit of research about Mr. Haas before making comments. Haas took many years to build is NASCAR team before it was successful. He did not give up or pull out because he was not winning. Instead he took the time and money to build. He will also do the same with F1 It may not be a good team or in anyway come out of the box a point scoring team but over time he will work on it. People should not judge him or an American team before they have seen anything about it. Also for you to make a generalization that American drivers cant do F1 is quit absurd, the biggest reason for that is because the sport has not had a real big hold in America so kids are not growing up saying i wanna be a formula 1 driver. Mr haas has been dreaming of having an F1 team for many many years now so he didnt just get the idea one day and say “oh hey this sounds fun” He was thinking of trying to get a team on the grid all the way back to when the last set of teams were granted entry to the sport. He knows the first few years will be a struggle to even score one point. I really hope that he can prove people wrong because you would think people would want as many teams and cars as possible in the sport. Just because its American or NASCAR related to make it any less of a team then anyone else trying to get into the sport.
      This might shock some people but Haas has one of the most high tech racing shops in the world for his NASCAR teams. The wind tunnel they use is called the Windshear. This is one of the most advanced wind tunnels in the world. F1 teams have already come to America to use it in the past. So he has everything an F1 team needs to make it.

    6. I agree they come along but don’t stay or do too well. It’s a while since Mario won the title

    7. Massive generalization there! I’ll freely admit that I don’t know an awful lot about Gene Haas, but a quick search reveals him to be a solid businessman who built up an equally solid NASCAR squad. His team started in 2003 and he took until 2009 to get his first win, that doesn’t seem to be the hallmark of a “come and go” sort of guy. Sure, NASCAR is nothing like F1, but he has build a solid 4 car squad and he has been through the FIA’s stringent screening process and he has gotten his approval to join the gird. He is right, the hard part starts now. He seems to be under no illusions as to how difficult a task it will be to get 2 Haas cars on the grid in time for 2015 so I honestly believe that so long as he can come up with a budget, he’ll be on the grid.

      Welcome to the Piranha Club, Gene.

      1. I personally very much welcome this news and if they get it right, they may shake up the established order which would be fantastic for F1. It’s time the hierarchy got their butts kicked…. :)

  12. I continue to find it so refreshing to hear about a healthy rivalry at Mercedes, as it should be. Data sharing so both sides of the garage can push each other forward for the greater good. So much better than the team just automatically favoring one driver, or one driver insisting on seeing the others’ data but not reciprocating.

  13. So THAT’s why Red Bull are not competitive this year: they clued the car together from gift wrapping….

  14. I am more interested in his (Haas) financial and technical support than his winning and losing over the next few years. If he can marshal finances and technical talents game on. Let’s wait and see how he builds a team from scratch and competes from the US.

  15. Mr. Haas has created an incredible company in the US…both technically and financially. However it costs a fraction of an F1 budget to run a Nascar team, hence his longivity. Being a very smart man, I am sure he has put together a proper business plan to run his new Team. But having watched Mike Gasycone build Caterham from scratch (in the UK), I find it very difficult to understand how Mr. Haas will man up his Team if working out of the US. Shame he can’t move his wind tunnel to the UK.

  16. SO when are the Chinese joining F1?? Surprised that they are not there yet…

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