Jolle wrote: ↑21 Oct 2022, 22:17
If you buy parts from others instead of trying to innovate and make something better, you'll never beat them.
Williams switching to the Mercedes gearbox was seen as a positive move by most - even though Williams exists to win races. They were the only ones still using an aluminium case IIRC. Minardi similarly moved much, much further up the grid once they started using Red Bull parts instead of trying to make their own (or even maintain their own Cosworth engines at times).
I think using Ferrari design and Dallara manufacture is the least of HAAS' problems. In all likelihood the design office with ex-Ferrari staff (and using Ferrari simulator and wind tunnel) is much better than what HAAS could do themselves.
If Dallara causes delays, perhaps HAAS could look into setting up their own manufacturing shop, they have no shortage of CNC machines!, but they obviously need to buy autoclaves etc. AFAIK HAAS have never had any issues with the quality of parts made by Dallara.
If I must offer a suggestion, it seems bizarre that the race team is based in England (IIRC) and not in Maranello, Italy. I would move the race team headquarter to Italy to be closer to Ferrari (but HAAS may be loyal to the British staff they are already have on their race teams, even if they do not enjoy most of the benefits of being located amongst the garagiste F1 industry, since they don't design their cars in England and largely do not use the English base of F1 engineers).
diffuser wrote: ↑22 Oct 2022, 04:28
I don't see how they don't stay perpetually bottom feeders.
They are nowhere near as far off the pace as the likes of Paul Stoddart's Minardi. Those cars were often 5s/lap off pole, while HAAS is rarely that slow and often qualifies inside the top 15 or sometimes even top 10!
It's all very well to say you should do everything in house as that is the best way to win races, but it doesn't seem realistic. It doesn't take much to go from winning races to bankruptcy as Lotus and Brabham show. So perhaps better, at times, to steady the ship Sauber-style and make more realistic objectives.
Why do Sauber escape criticism when the car they design and build themselves (noting that a lot of the big engineering offices BMW financed were located elsewhere and Sauber don't have them anymore) is really not all that much faster than HAAS' Ferrari-designed, Dallara-built car?!
