Haas - American team in F1

[FW17]

So, all it takes now is for Gene Haas to be foolish enough to start wasting megabucks on a future Formula 1 of an unknown format?

I think he's a tad smarter than that, besides, he can always change the sign on that building.

I find a disconnect between what Haas intends to do and how he is going about it.

He has made up his mind to buy parts from Ferrari, but this could be the entire car except for the bodywork. So when does he actually get these parts; will they be from next year of from 2016?

With regard to the bodywork, who is going to design them? it cant be tested at windshear as it is being modified to test 60% models and will not be ready next year.

Haas is going to be in for a surprise when he starts model testing as this is one area which is going to be completely new to him. the sophistication of an f1 model is going to amaze him. I hope he has a deal with ferrari to buy a wind tunnel model too to start with. Some how I don't see mattiacci being a good partner.

[GitanesBlondes]

Assuming he really has a team on the grid at Melbourne, I could see him pulling a page out of Roger Penske's handbook and running a full scale car in his wind tunnel. The FIA can't see that far away, and there's plenty of incentive to do that when you are far away from all of the other teams, plus there's an ocean separating you.

[xpensive]

So Haas has appointed Matt Borland, a long-time Nascar engineer, as VP Technology for the future F1 team.

With all the respect for Nascar, is this serious, Ken Anderson of USF1 at least had some F1 experience?

[FW17]

Assuming he really has a team on the grid at Melbourne, I could see him pulling a page out of Roger Penske's handbook and running a full scale car in his wind tunnel. The FIA can't see that far away, and there's plenty of incentive to do that when you are far away from all of the other teams, plus there's an ocean separating you.

Is there any known punishment for model scale rule or the number of operational hours at the wind tunnel? Does FIA have observers in each factory?

[SteveRacer]

So Haas has appointed Matt Borland, a long-time Nascar engineer, as VP Technology for the future F1 team.

With all the respect for Nascar, is this serious, Ken Anderson of USF1 at least had some F1 experience?

After reading this, it sound like his role is more of a gate keeper between 2 divisions.


From Jayski.com
Veteran motorsports engineer Matt Borland has been named vice president of technology for Haas F1 Team and Stewart-Haas Racing. In this role, Borland will serve as a liaison between the two organizations - Haas F1 Team in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship and Stewart-Haas Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Borland will oversee the transfer of Formula One technology to Stewart-Haas Racing while providing Haas F1 Team with deep engineering resources. Concurrently, the highly-respected Borland will serve as a gatekeeper, ensuring the privacy of proprietary information respective to each team. Borland joined Haas CNC Racing, the precursor to Stewart-Haas Racing, in May 2007. He has served in numerous capacities, including crew chief, competition director, technical director and, most recently, vice president of engineering, where he oversaw all of the team's technical initiatives and research and development projects. Borland came to Haas CNC Racing with significant NASCAR experience, first with Team Penske from the end of the 1999 season through 2006 and then with Michael Waltrip Racing in 2007. Prior to coming to NASCAR, Borland was the race engineer for driver Mark Blundell at PacWest Racing in Champ Car and before that, Borland was at Pi Research, a well-known engineering organization specializing in motorsports.(SHR)(11-18-2014)

[countersteer]

With regard to the bodywork, who is going to design them? it cant be tested at windshear as it is being modified to test 60% models and will not be ready next year.

Can you explain what modifications would be necessary to go from full scale to 60% models? It would appear to me that no modification would be necessary. You could simply put the smaller model in the tunnel and go.

Thanks in advance...

[Tim.Wright]

At a guess I'd say that its because the aero load measurements are done differently with a scale model compared to a full size vehicle.

Scale models are normally hung from the roof with a strain gauge assy which measures the aero loads. This isn't really feasible for a full vehicle so I'd guess that this gear isn't in the Windshear tunnel.

[FW17]

Can you explain the wind tunnel upgrade and its impact on development progress?
JA: Our upgrade has allowed us to switch from a 50% model to a 60% model. It doesn’t sound like a big thing when you say it like that, but any F1 aerodynamicist would nod in agreement at the huge workload involved.

Although we call them ‘models’, the word does not do them justice as it conjures up images of a toy. F1 wind tunnel models are nearly as complicated and almost as expensive as their full size counterparts. They are beautiful pieces of engineering and it asks a lot of the aero department to generate the headroom to take on such an upgrade whilst not letting up on the development of the car.

In addition to the model, there are changes to the tunnel infrastructure that need to be put in place: We had to modify the mounting system for the model and the wheels to cope with the new design. We had to develop new electronic measuring systems to cope with the higher loads. As each part is 20% longer, has 44% more surface area and 73% more volume, we had to upgrade our manufacturing systems to ensure that we could still cope with the throughput of making all of the thousands of wind tunnel test components at the same rate as their much smaller 50% counterparts.

Finally, we had to modify the tunnel working section to accommodate the larger model. This involved stopping the tunnel for 12 days, stripping the entire working section back to its bare skeleton and then building it back up for the new model. This is a huge budget of work, but I am proud that we have achieved it without impact on the programme other than 12 days of lost development. I am also happy that the weeks that have followed its installation have justified the investment as they have been very rich in terms of downforce gained. Our challenge now is to get these gains to the track.

Not sure what haas is capable of but surely it will not be in the same league as f1 teams in terms of flow visualization and data collection from a model. Most of this stuff is very secretive and Haas tunnel has not seen a F1 model in it (may be wrong, maybe honda did use it)

As JA says that there tunnel was down for 12 days but he does not reveal the time it took to re calibrate the entire system

[countersteer]

At a guess I'd say that its because the aero load measurements are done differently with a scale model compared to a full size vehicle.

Scale models are normally hung from the roof with a strain gauge assy which measures the aero loads. This isn't really feasible for a full vehicle so I'd guess that this gear isn't in the Windshear tunnel.

I think you've hit on it... The tunnel can handle full scale NASCAR racers and Indycars. From the pictures, it appears that these are controlled with control arms to the hubs of each wheel. They noted that most scale model tunnels control the model from above. They may have to add this capability.

Neat stuff on their website.

http://www.windshearinc.com/index.htm#home

[FW17]

Haas doing a sensible thing

The American tycoon Gene Haas has revealed that he will be bidding for the assets of the collapsed Marussia Formula One team when they are put up for auction on Tuesday at its former factory in Banbury.

The team closed their doors in November and missed the last three races of the season. To pay their bills, administrators are selling nearly 1,000 items including steering wheels, gearboxes, race suits and even the 2013 chassis.

It is of particular interest to Haas as he is launching an F1 team in 2016. After revealing that he is considering locating it in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, he said: “We have got the Marussia auction list so I think we will be bidders for some of that stuff.”

Marussia is the second F1 team to hit the wall in the past two months. Caterham only managed to race at last month’s season-ender after raising £2.4m through crowd-funding.

Haas is not deterred by their failure as he believes both teams had a flawed business model. “If we did it the way Caterham and Marussia did it we would have the same result so I think we are going to do it differently,” he said. Key to this approach is taking advantage of a new regulation that will allow Haas to reduce start-up costs by buying more parts from established F1 marques. “A lot of the teams in the UK build everything themselves. They seem to have this English mentality that this is the way it has to be done and that is just not our business model at all.”

Unlike all existing F1 teams, the design division of Haas F1 will be split from the race operation. Design will be based in North Carolina, alongside the Nascar stock car team which Haas co-owns, while the F1 team is on track to employ around 250 staff in the UK. “We looked at a place in Abingdon and there are several available in that area. I guess it might be a possibility to take a look at the Marussia HQ too.”

[aleks_ader]

Haas doing a sensible thing

The American tycoon Gene Haas has revealed that he will be bidding for the assets of the collapsed Marussia Formula One team when they are put up for auction on Tuesday at its former factory in Banbury.

The team closed their doors in November and missed the last three races of the season. To pay their bills, administrators are selling nearly 1,000 items including steering wheels, gearboxes, race suits and even the 2013 chassis.

It is of particular interest to Haas as he is launching an F1 team in 2016. After revealing that he is considering locating it in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, he said: “We have got the Marussia auction list so I think we will be bidders for some of that stuff.”

Marussia is the second F1 team to hit the wall in the past two months. Caterham only managed to race at last month’s season-ender after raising £2.4m through crowd-funding.

Haas is not deterred by their failure as he believes both teams had a flawed business model. “If we did it the way Caterham and Marussia did it we would have the same result so I think we are going to do it differently,” he said. Key to this approach is taking advantage of a new regulation that will allow Haas to reduce start-up costs by buying more parts from established F1 marques. “A lot of the teams in the UK build everything themselves. They seem to have this English mentality that this is the way it has to be done and that is just not our business model at all.”

Unlike all existing F1 teams, the design division of Haas F1 will be split from the race operation. Design will be based in North Carolina, alongside the Nascar stock car team which Haas co-owns, while the F1 team is on track to employ around 250 staff in the UK. “We looked at a place in Abingdon and there are several available in that area. I guess it might be a possibility to take a look at the Marussia HQ too.”

Jup! Encouraging indeed.

-he could use also Marussias former workers too.

[Richard]

A lot of the teams in the UK build everything themselves. They seem to have this English mentality that this is the way it has to be done and that is just not our business model at all.

err... Gene, that's because the rules say that has to happen. The rules were tightened to block Torro Rosso running a re-badged Red Bull. The tradition in F1 used to allow small teams to buy entire cars from established teams which is what you'd expect from what Napoleon called a "nation of shopkeepers".

[Jonnycraig]

A lot of the teams in the UK build everything themselves. They seem to have this English mentality that this is the way it has to be done and that is just not our business model at all.

err... Gene, that's because the rules say that has to happen. The rules were tightened to block Torro Rosso running a re-badged Red Bull. The tradition in F1 used to allow small teams to buy entire cars from established teams which is what you'd expect from what Napoleon called a "nation of shopkeepers".

In fairness, Ferrari are going to provide all the internals & technical support and its been whispered that Dallara will be doing a lot of, if not all the design work on the car itself, so on that front he has a point. However we have seen how successful HRT were getting Dallara to design the car and run it on the cheap.

[Richard]

I don't think the Ferrari link is due to nationality, it's about who has the capacity to support a customer team. For instance Red Bull are already committed to Torro Rosso and McLaren to Force India.

There's also consideration of the engine supplier - Ferrari needed another customer for their engines, McLaren are tied to exclusivity with Honda, Merc can't take on any more PU customers. Renault might have been an option, but I'm sure Red Bull want Renault to not get distracted by a new team while they catch up with Merc.

So Ferrari was probably the only realistic option for Haas because it gives them a combined power and chassis support. Otherwise they'd be looking to marry different chassis and PU suppliers - for example Williams chassis/aero with Renault engines.

Finally supporting a US team is a good fit for Ferrari since they seem to be strengthening their trans Atlantic ties with the flotation in New York and Montezemolo would have had Mattiacci in mind for TP at the time he was talking to Haas. Also Marchionne grew up and qualified in Canada. North America is the bees knees in Maranello ... until the next turn of the revolving door!

[FW17]

Force India is not supported by Mclaren in this turbo era