Get to know F1 Teams: Haas

 Hi, this week I'm introducing Haas F1 Team.

Haas F1 Team is the newest Formula 1 team since 2016. 

Haas are based in Kannapolis, North Carolina, USA and Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, UK.

Current team members:

Team owner- Gene Haas

COO- Joe Custer

Team principal- Guenther Steiner

Technical director- Simone Resta

Drivers- Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher

Founder- Gene Haas

History

Haas was the first American constructor to submit a F1 entry after the failed US F1 project in 2010, and it is the first American constructor to compete since the unrelated Haas Lola outfit raced in 1985 and 1986 seasons. The Haas Lola team was owned by former McLaren boss Teddy Mayer and Carl Haas, who was not related to Gene Haas. Following collapse of the Murussia F1 during the 2014 season and the auctioning of their assets, Haas purchased the team's Banbury headquarters to serve as forward base for their operations.

Unrestricted by testing regulations until the time the team actually entered F1, Haas shook its new car down in December 2015 ahead of official pre-season testing in Barcelona in early 2016. Haas approached Italian manufacturer Dallara to build their chassis, with a power unit supplied by Ferrari. Former Jaguar and Red Bull Racing Technical director Guenther Steiner is the team principal. Haas confirmed its new car had passed the mandatory FIA crash tests in January 2016.

  Haas's approach of establishing a far-reaching partnership with Ferrari was met with a mixed response from the paddock. The constructor was applauded for pioneering a low-cost model that would allow new teams to enter the sport and be competitive, which had been of concern to the sport for some years. Conversely, Haas's approach was criticized by smaller, privateer teams who had invested in their own infrastructure and expressed concerns about the close relationship between manufacturers and satellite constructors handing more political power to the sport's larger constructors. In 2018 the constructor again came under fire from competitors after arriving at winter testing with a car that strongly resembled the Ferrari SF70H, Ferrari's 2017 car. Competitors McLaren and Force India both criticized the partnership between Ferrari and Haas. While no official grievance has been filled with the FIA, McLaren boss Zak Brown has questioned the relationship. During 2021 rule discussions in April 2019, concerns over Haas F1's B-team approach were presented by Renault and McLaren. Director of Motorsports Ross Brawn said that he wants to protect and enhance the model for the foreseeable future as it allows teams with smaller budgets to enter the sport.

Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutiérrez drove for the team in 2016. In the team's debut at the opening Australian Grand Prix, Grosjean finished 6th, scoring eight points for the team, which became the first American constructor to win points in its first F1 race and the first constructor overall since Toyota Racing in 2002 to record points in its debut. At the same race, Gutiérrez crashed out in an incident which destroyed former world champion Fernando Alonso's McLaren and caused the race to be temporarily red-flagged. Another impressive race followed in Bahrain, where Grosjean finished 5th. However, for the rest of the season the team fell off the pace, only scoring points on three more occasions. It was Grosjean who picked up all 29 points en route to 8th in the Constructors' Championship.

Kevin Magnussen drove alongside Grosjean in 2017, replacing Gutiérrez. In the first race of the season, the team scored its best-ever qualifying effort with Grosjean piloting the VF-17 to 6th place. However, in the race, both cars were forced to retire with mechanical failures. The second race weekend proved better for the team with Magnussen finishing 8th, scoring his first points since his 10th-place finish in the 2016 Singapore Grand Prix, and Haas's first points since the 2016 United States Grand Prix, where Grosjean finished 10th. The team's success would continue in 2017 as Haas would also go on to get their first double points finish in Monaco where Grosjean and Magnussen finished 8th and 10th respectively. The team finished 8th in the constructors' title for the second consecutive year after being surpassed by the Renault Sport Formula One Team in the final races.

In February 2018, Haas unveiled their new car, the VF-18, although some competitors called for an investigation due to its resemblance to the previous year's Ferrari, the SF70H. Following a strong showing during winter testing, Haas again had a competitive weekend in Australia, scoring the team's best-ever starting grid positions with Magnussen starting 5th and Grosjean 6th, respectively. During the race, they were running in 4th and 5th positions which would have given them their best result and half of their 2017 points tally, but both cars retired one lap after their respective pit stops. They would eventually match this 4th and 5th-place result in Austria, where they also surpassed their 2017 points total after only nine races. At the Singapore Grand Prix, Magnussen scored Haas' first-ever fastest lap. 2018 was their best season to date, finishing fifth in the Constructors' Championship, one point short of doubling their previous year's performance.

The team took on Rich Energy as a title sponsor for 2019. This was part of the activation of a multi-year title sponsorship deal with Rich Energy, a British energy drink company which was previously linked to purchasing Force India. The team also retained their 2018 driver line up for 2019 consisting of Grosjean and Magnussen for the third consecutive year. Haas' challenger for the 2019 season was the VF-19. The VF-19 often showed impressive pace during qualifying but struggled during the race. At the opening race in Australia, Magnussen finished 6th in what would eventually turn out to be the team's best result of the season. The team's qualifying pace was evident in Austria, where Magnussen recorded the 5th-fastest time, but went on to finish the race in 19th with Grosjean 16th. Four days before the British Grand Prix, in July, the Rich Energy Twitter account announced that the sponsorship deal had been terminated, citing poor performance. This was later denied by both the team and Rich Energy's shareholders and it was asserted that the tweet was the result of a "rogue" individual. For the British Grand Prix the team elected to reverse the upgrades placed on Grosjean's car, using the same specification run in Australia, to determine the causes of the car's poor race pace. However, both drivers collided with each other on the first lap, causing a double retirement for the team. The German Grand Prix provided the team's best-combined result of the season, being classified 7th and 8th after post-race penalties for other drivers. Title sponsor Rich Energy faced numerous legal issues during the year, including being found to have plagiarized the logo of bicycle manufacturer Whyte Bikes. In September, a day after the Italian Grand Prix, Rich Energy announced the termination of the deal with the Haas F1 team with immediate effect. The team had earned no points for the race at Monza, with Grosjean finishing only 16th and Magnussen retiring. Haas finished the season in 9th place in the constructors' championship with 28 points, the team's worst finish since their founding in 2016.

Haas kept an unchanged lineup of Grosjean and Magnussen for the 2020 season. In the 2020 Formula One World Championship, Haas scored 3 points, with Magnussen finishing 9th in Hungary, but receiving a time penalty that would drop him to 10th, and Grosjean finishing 9th in the Eifel Grand Prix. They would not score again. The team finished 9th in the Constructor's Championship, scoring the fewest points in team history. On the opening lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Grosjean collided with AlphaTauri driver Daniil Kvyat and crashed through the barriers between turns 3 and 4. The impact resulted in the car splitting in two and bursting into flames. Grosjean escaped major injury, suffering burns on his hands, and was hospitalized after the race. He remarked that the halo head protection device likely saved his life. The crash ruled him out of the following week's Sakhir Grand Prix, and he was replaced by Haas reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi.

Both Magnussen and Grosjean left Haas at the end of the 2020 Championship. They were replaced by Russian Nikita Mazepin, and 2020 Formula 2 Championship winner Mick Schumacher, son of seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher. In order to survive financially, the team opted to halt development of the 2021 car, instead focusing resources on the 2022 car. They also secured Uralkali, a Russian potash fertilizer producer of which Mazepin's father Dmitry is a key shareholder, as the title sponsor for the team. Uralkali's sponsorship resulted in a livery containing the colors of the Russian flag. Steiner denied this was to circumvent a World Anti-Doping Agency ban on the use of the Russian flag. During the first race, Mazepin spun out on the first lap, while Schumacher finished 16th in his debut, the last of all running cars. In the final race of the season, Mazepin tested positive for coronavirus and was ruled out of the race. Haas was unable to field a replacement driver, as no driver fulfilled the requirement of having competed in a practice session for the team.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Haas removed the branding of Russian sponsor of Uralkali from its cars, as well as the colours of the Russian flag. On the 5th of March, the team announced it has terminated its title sponsorship deal with Urulkali and its driver contract with Mazepin with immediate effect. Haas resigned Kevin Magnussen for 2022 onwards.