A new Formula One team, directed by NASCAR team owner Gene Haas has been permitted an entry to F1 in 2015, Haas and the FIA confirmed on Friday following a meeting of the World Motorsport Council at Morocco.
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I'm a fan of F1 and I also live in the United States, so I welcomed the news about Haas the same way I welcomed the news about the stillborn USF1. There has clearly been a lack of traction stateside over the last couple of decades and the American "audience" is an interesting breed. Perhaps not much different from the global audience at large, but couple those two facts and it leads us to where we are today.
I can't help but draw an analogy to the pro cycling tour. Over the years the US had some minor entries and even some success with Eric Heiden with team 7/11 and then a good bit Greg LeMond with La Vie Claire. But even having a Tour winner it didn't take hold until the USPS team and Armstrong. US team, Texas boy... blah blah, and cycling took off stateside for real for the first time. Let's not get into what happened later.
But my point is, that to get the traction stateside that pro cycling got will only come with an American team being successful, hopefully developing an American driver along with it.
Haas' F1 odyssey began the day he was approached by Gunther Steiner Steiner wanted to get back into F1, he admits Haas was not the only man he approached. But in Haas, Steiner found a willing audience.
So, it was not Haas who wanted to set up an F1 team, it was Gunther Steiner who lured Haas into using F1 as a platform for Haas' ideas about expansion abroad.
I want people to associate Haas Automation as a scrappy young company that can take on the big guys and win. People will say, ‘These guys can race friggin’ F1 cars, and if they can succeed at that, they must build a hell of a machine tool.’”
Ferrari has signed two F1 drivers just recently, Esteban Gutierrez and Jean-Eric Vergne. Said because the loss of Pedro de la Rosa. Yet, Ferrari still employ Marc Gene, Davide Rigon, and a slew of former F1 drivers down in the sportscar ranks. In other words, Ferrari have drivers.
Haas F1 does not. Danica Patrick will never, ever, never race in F1. Alexander Rossi is a rookie driver that has a, just ok, motorsport record, nothing more. In F1, he only drove in free practices. He did not, ever, race (or compete for that matter) in F1.
If Haas F1 truly is a Ferrari B-Team, Haas F1 have just announced their 2016 drivers, courtesy of Ferrari, to be Esteban Gutierrez and Jean-Eric Vergne. Otherwise, Ferrari has no need for additional former F1 drivers waiting in line for the simulator.
Gutierrez is an experienced F1 driver from Mexico that brings wads of cash. Haas needs a North American driver and cash. Check. Jean-Eric Vergne is an experienced F1 driver from France with something to prove. Haas needs speedy experience.
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"
Manoah your reasoning is extremely valid in my point of view. I hadn't taught about HAAS when concerning Ferrari and their surplus of Formula 1 Drivers.. For the Record if Kimi leaves I see Vergne taking his seat and Esteban will definitely be back in a Back marker team.. Because of all the Telmex funding..
TAG wrote:I'm a fan of F1 and I also live in the United States, so I welcomed the news about Haas the same way I welcomed the news about the stillborn USF1. There has clearly been a lack of traction stateside over the last couple of decades and the American "audience" is an interesting breed. Perhaps not much different from the global audience at large, but couple those two facts and it leads us to where we are today.
I can't help but draw an analogy to the pro cycling tour. Over the years the US had some minor entries and even some success with Eric Heiden with team 7/11 and then a good bit Greg LeMond with La Vie Claire. But even having a Tour winner it didn't take hold until the USPS team and Armstrong. US team, Texas boy... blah blah, and cycling took off stateside for real for the first time. Let's not get into what happened later.
But my point is, that to get the traction stateside that pro cycling got will only come with an American team being successful, hopefully developing an American driver along with it.
I don't think Americans will get too excited about an F1 team no matter how good they are. An American driver that is successful is something people will get behind.
Racer X wrote:Manoah your reasoning is extremely valid in my point of view. I hadn't taught about HAAS when concerning Ferrari and their surplus of Formula 1 Drivers.. For the Record if Kimi leaves I see Vergne taking his seat and Esteban will definitely be back in a Back marker team.. Because of all the Telmex funding..
Ferrari is not a team that will sign up a reserve driver as a regular in case Kimi leaves.
If Vergne was any good, he would have been successful in lobbying for a seat elsewhere for this year and he had the whole of 2014 to sign a deal with another team.
Vergne may get a get a seat at Haas but not Ferrari
Vergne had no chance of getting an F1 seat anywhere else. All the other teams need drivers with money. Drivers with money are all already signed up. Vergne should not be a pay driver, he is better than that. Just look at his Formula E debut. He maynot be as good a Ricciardo, but he's certainly not a bad driver, I'd honestly rate him with Grosjean, Button, Rosberg and Bianchi, all worthy mid-field drivers.
We've always said, lets see what Vettel is like in a different team to judge his talent, well lets do the same with Vergne!
KeiKo403 wrote:Vergne had no chance of getting an F1 seat anywhere else. All the other teams need drivers with money. Drivers with money are all already signed up. Vergne should not be a pay driver, he is better than that. Just look at his Formula E debut. He maynot be as good a Ricciardo, but he's certainly not a bad driver, I'd honestly rate him with Grosjean, Button, Rosberg and Bianchi, all worthy mid-field drivers.
We've always said, lets see what Vettel is like in a different team to judge his talent, well lets do the same with Vergne!
If he was good he would have got one of the 2 seats in Force India or Lotus.
JEV thought he was good enough for a 4th season at Torro Rosso (where he was rated behind DK).
KeiKo403 wrote:Vergne had no chance of getting an F1 seat anywhere else. All the other teams need drivers with money. Drivers with money are all already signed up. Vergne should not be a pay driver, he is better than that. Just look at his Formula E debut. He maynot be as good a Ricciardo, but he's certainly not a bad driver, I'd honestly rate him with Grosjean, Button, Rosberg and Bianchi, all worthy mid-field drivers.
We've always said, lets see what Vettel is like in a different team to judge his talent, well lets do the same with Vergne!
If he was good he would have got one of the 2 seats in Force India or Lotus.
That's not necessarily true. Force India and Lotus both need at least one pay driver, as KeiKo mentioned. Hard to compete with the kind of money Perez and Maldonado have. Granted, I do think Hulk and Grosjean are both better than Vergne.
acosmichippo wrote:
That's not necessarily true. Force India and Lotus both need at least one pay driver, as KeiKo mentioned. Hard to compete with the kind of money Perez and Maldonado have. Granted, I do think Hulk and Grosjean are both better than Vergne.
Pay drivers are necessary in mid field teams now and the 2 of them mentioned are not your average pay drivers; inconsistent, brash but certainly speedy drivers.
I am not against JEV's talent; I am speaking about his stupidity. He knew his time at TR was up mid 2013 when DR was announced as replacement as MW. And having been at Red Bull academy for a good few years he knew what was coming. Yet he never actively pursued the 2 available seats. And of course he could have worked it to his favor by just getting a sponsor from France even $1 million.
Now he speaks himself as potential replacement for Kimi
WilliamsF1 wrote: And of course he could have worked it to his favor by just getting a sponsor from France even $1 million.
Now he speaks himself as potential replacement for Kimi
ok, this is going off-topic now but I would just like to say 1 last thing on the subject......Good for JEV for believing in himself enough to not prostitute himself out. (Unless he just couldn't get sponsorship? )
OK - Ferrari aren't doing very well, but it's Ferrari, a paid position in a prestigious team. Beats pinning your hopes on sponsors to raise millions and millions for you to drive a Sauber at the back of the grid.
Back on-topic to Haas, how likely is the rumour that he's buying the Marussia team? I dare say he'd be able to strike a deal on the Ferrari PU debt and next years PU supply too and he'd get the $30m 2014 Prize money at some point too.
Dare I say it'd be cheaper to buy Marussia (debts-n-all) than start a fresh, paying for recruitments/hirings, equipment, basic infrastructure?
Why would he buy the remnants of the 2014 materials and it be conciderd 'buying the team with it's debts'?
when he can simply just as easily employ the ex-marussia members, without getting the pain of dealing with the debts of marussia, to which the former staff probably is no longer liaised to Marussia - they are, after all, essentially 'fired' from Marussia when it went up 'in smoke'. I'm sure most Marussia staff are sad they won't be seeing their 'baby' compete in 2015 - however, they'll be keen to 'return' to F1 in another outfit. Probably some already found themselves a way to 'competitor' teams.
Meanwhile, Haas would do well to 'hire' the services of these trained team members, if it were just for the pitstops alone!
Haas is having to construct a chassis - Marussia has years of knowledge on providing just that, why not use their knowledge?
After all, the Marussia cars were constructed with the Ferrari powerplant in mind.
Haas mentioned this or next month he's going to have to order trucks/semi's for transportation and the build of these things costs about 6 months. Perhaps he can aquire Marussia trucks and just paint them over?
I see no use in Haas 'aquiring' the bankrupt debt-holding Marussia/Manor outfit.
I do see great use in aquiring as much as material from them as possible - however, if i read correctly, he hasnt' done such a thing at all, except aquire the Marussia 'base' in the UK as Haas' UK location (which he definately needs).
So either he's bonkers ( scratch that, i genuinly think he's bonkers but that's another story ) or he's not interested in Marussia materials at all because he has set up a good base with Ferrari in a technical partnership - which sounds logical imho.
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"
KeiKo403 wrote:Vergne had no chance of getting an F1 seat anywhere else. All the other teams need drivers with money. Drivers with money are all already signed up. Vergne should not be a pay driver, he is better than that. Just look at his Formula E debut. He maynot be as good a Ricciardo, but he's certainly not a bad driver, I'd honestly rate him with Grosjean, Button, Rosberg and Bianchi, all worthy mid-field drivers.
We've always said, lets see what Vettel is like in a different team to judge his talent, well lets do the same with Vergne!
If he was good he would have got one of the 2 seats in Force India or Lotus.
Eh? Lotus have two mega pay drivers, and Force India have one mammoth paydriver and Hulkenberg who they know very well. It would take an awful lot of persuading for FI to ditch Hulkenberg for Vergne also with no money.
As it is, Vergne now has a plum seat in Formula E, a rumoured plum seat in Indycar and a well paying reserve role at a top team. I'd argue he's far better off now than if he scrabbled around to fund a middle of the road F1 seat for another year.
Jonnycraig wrote:As it is, Vergne now has a plum seat in Formula E, a rumoured plum seat in Indycar and a well paying reserve role at a top team. I'd argue he's far better off now than if he scrabbled around to fund a middle of the road F1 seat for another year.
Formula E is where F1 careers go to die.
Sorry to say it, but Vergne's probably written off his last F1 chances by taking that drive.
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