Site logo

Haas Will Be Good For F1

FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE
08/02/2015

Gene Haas has won the right to field a Formula One team and perhaps he will become the first successful American F1 team owner. I know John Watson won the 1976 Austrian GP in a car called a Penske, but actually that was a modified March.

The guy has built up an impressive business manufacturing CNC machine tools and he feels that a presence in Formula One will help his core business to expand into new markets and he is probably right.

The one thing that gives me pause is that Haas has commissioned a car from Dallara. Dallara has become the world's number one maker of customer racing cars many of which are for one-make 'spec' formulae. To achieve that position, it had to compete against outfits like Lola, Ralt and Reynard who once seemed to have the customer market tied up.

The fact is that Dallara has never designed a front-line F1 car and I do not think that Dallara ever can. It is all a matter of culture.

Between 1988 and 1992 there was a Dallara F1 team and it was not a complete flop. It won 15 points, when points were awarded only down to sixth, and it scored two third places. It did much better than most new teams in that era, some of whom never even qualified for a race.

Brun Motorsport won the 1986 World Sportscar Championship (with Porsche) and was runner-up in 1987. That is impressive, but between 1988 and 1990 the EuroBrun F1 team qualified only 14 times and its highest finish was 11th.

When you consider details like that, you have to concede that Dallara did pretty well in F1 for a minor team. It gave up F1 at the end of 1992 and produced a stunning F3 car for 1993. A couple were sold to a British team and Adrian Reynard took one look at them and knew he was in trouble.

The British Formula Three Championship was the most prestigious. Reynards won the first five races, but team owners bought Dallaras as fast as they could be built. As soon as they were delivered, they won and kept on winning. At the end of the season Reynard withdrew from Formula Three having lost its customer base.

Note the dates: Dallara came good as a customer car maker after it quit F1. The company had made F3000 cars which were not competitive. Its spell in Formula One raised its game in all areas. The last time F1 teams also did well in the customer car market was in the early 1970s.

Wind on about 15 years and Dallara was commissioned to build F1 cars for HRT (remember them?) There were money problems involved, sure, but the culture of Formula One had changed. I believe that HRT was doomed to failure because it out-sourced its design to an outfit used to making customer cars.

To service a modern one-make 'spec' formula, the successful bidder has to make a competent design the point of which is to guarantee that all customers receive identical kit. By contrast, a new F1 car is the basis for continuous development and the car that runs in the last race of the season is not the same as the car which ran in the first race.

Outfits like Brabham, Lotus, McLaren and Surtees stopped making customer cars around 1973/4 - at the same time as Ferrari dropped its very successful sports car programme - to concentrate on Formula One. March alone continued in F1 and also the customer car market and March was not a star team in Formula One.

In 1987, March re-entered F1 on the back of some hugely successful years in F3000, IMSA and Indycar. The F1 team recruited from March Engineering and put a promising young designer in charge of its programme. This designer had been at London University with Robin Herd's son, Mark, who suggested to his Dad that he should offer his pal work during the summer vacation. The name of the pal from uni was Adrian Newey. By such chances is history made.

Adrian's F1 cars for March marked him as an extraordinary talent and he was joined by Nick Wirth whom Robin rated even more highly. Meanwhile, the March customer side went down the tubes. There was a slew of reasons, but to give some idea how great was the fall, at Indianapolis in 1984, 29 of the 33 starters were March cars.

Just along the road at Bicester, Reynard eventually took over March's mantle in F3000 and Indycar. The proximity of the two companies meant their histories were intertwined. When one was having a hard time, craftsmen like fabricators simply moved from one to another. At one bleak point in the Reynard story, its main income came from storing unsold March racing cars.

Adrian Reynard knew that Formula One was dangerous, an attempt to enter F1 in 1990/91 had come close to bankrupting the company, but Reynard was saved by a deal with Benetton, Benetton became Renault became Lotus and some refer to the 'Enstone Team.' The factory at Enstone was built by Reynard.

The company recovered and built an Indycar which won first time in the hands of Michael Andretti. In 1995, rookie Jacques Villeneuve not only won the series, he won the Indianapolis 500, before it became devalued by IRL.

Adrian and Jacques became close and guess what happened when Jacques set up his own team, BAR. The Reynard factory in Bicester, from whence came nearly 2,000 single-seater racing cars, is now home to 'House of Pine'.

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST FEATURES

more features >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images
  • Pitpass.com latest F1/Formula 1 images

POST A COMMENT

or Register for a Pitpass ID to have your say

Please note that all posts are reactively moderated and must adhere to the site's posting rules and etiquette.

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

 

1. Posted by jfagan, 21/02/2015 18:03

"Hi Mike
I don't think the very pugnacious John Travis would agree with your description of the Penske as a modified March! In fact, knowing John, I'd probably leave the country if I was you. These North Manchester guys can be pretty aggressive and, having driven at least one of his cars - strangely the other was a modified March 2 litre sports car - he was pretty fine designer and deserves more Good luck in the afterlife!
"

Rating: Neutral (0)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by Steve W, 16/02/2015 6:31

"'...Gene Haas hopes to penetrate new markets for his core business which is a different motive to that behind most teams.'

Unfortunately, I think that's all Haas wants to do. I don't think we're looking at anything close to a long-time F1 entrant - no matter how much (or little) success he has."

Rating: Negative (-1)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by scf1fan, 14/02/2015 19:49

"All things being equal, I don't believe that Hass has enough money to play effectively in the F1 Venue. Perhaps if his team has some modicum of success early on, then they will attract the sponsorship needed, but if not, his team might up getting a lot of publicity for all the wrong reasons. (I.E. Caterham, Marrussia, HRT, etc.)"

Rating: Neutral (0)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

4. Posted by Art, 13/02/2015 12:53

"More recent Works teams such as Honda, Toyota invested Billions of Dollars with considerable talent in the entire teams, they both quit. In the 80s did Alfa Romeo, Arrows (Ross Braun), Fittipaldi Cars and many others ever win, I do not think so
I just reviewed the teams that failed in the 70s, 80s,90s to the present, the list is substantial. I do not believe you can win in any customer car in F1 for a myriad of reasons.
I agree with everything Mike Lawrence has documented and wish the HAAS Team all the best."

Rating: Neutral (0)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

5. Posted by Tombstone, 13/02/2015 10:31

"Re criminal record:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/20/business/20tax.html?_r=1&

http://www.vcstar.com/news/haas-automation-owner-gets-2-years-in-prison-for

http://www.vcstar.com/business/haas-about-to-leave-prison-business-owner-was-of

"

Rating: Neutral (0)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

6. Posted by TokyoAussie, 10/02/2015 12:41

"I know nothing about this Haas character. I assumed at first several years ago that he was connected with the Haas racing dynasty in the US, but apparently not. If he is/was a crook, he certainly won't be the first. We've had crooks, and maybe even spies, in GPS racing before. In that sense he may be following a tradition. I wish him luck. "

Rating: Neutral (0)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

7. Posted by Nittany, 09/02/2015 18:43

"For what it's worth, Jacques Villeneuve was an Indy rookie (in both the series and the Indy 500) in 1994, not 1995. His series championship and Indy 500 win both came in his second, and last, year with the series. And I'd be in agreement with your assessment that both the series and the 500 became devalued by IRL the following year (1996)."

Rating: Neutral (0)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

8. Posted by Hondawho?, 09/02/2015 16:30

"Yes, he sounds just the sort of guy who will fit into F1!

Allegedly or so I read, Mr Hass was convicted of tax evasion: June 19, 2006, Haas was arrested by IRS agents for investigation of filing false tax returns, witness intimidation, and conspiracy.

Four others were indicted together with Haas, and all four of the co-indicted pleaded guilty. (anyone known within motorsport? Answers on a postcard)

Before the Haas' case was to go to trial, a plea agreement was reached with Haas pleading guilty, and conspiring to commit tax evasion. He was sentenced to 2 years in prison and ordered to pay $75 million in costs (sic).

Haas was jailed at the beginning of January 2008 and was released on probation May 2009 after serving 16 months of his 2 year sentence.

It does make one wonder how money is made legitimately anywhere in the World, so I guess he has enough for an F1 team now. God bless America!"

Rating: Neutral (0)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

9. Posted by slracer, 08/02/2015 15:55

"Perhaps Mr. Lawrence should check his memory bank and add the 1967 win of the Gurney Eagle at Spa as a (partially) successful US effort. It was even done "his way", based in the UK, but also ran out of money after one year. "

Rating: Neutral (0)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

Share this page

X

Copyright © Pitpass 2002 - 2024. All rights reserved.

about us  |  advertise  |  contact  |  privacy & security  |  rss  |  terms