Ahead of his team's debut in 2016, F1's newest team boss Gene Haas reveals that work on his UK operation is about to begin.

Whilst some like to get on with things quietly, away from the prying mics and lenses of the media, Gene Haas appears to want every step of his new team's progress made public.

Weeks after buying Marussia's former HQ, Haas has revealed that work on the UK side of his operation, which will employ up to 250 people, will begin this month.

"We are moving right ahead," he told Auto Week, "in January we are going to start having a few employees in the UK. We have to start ordering all of our haulers and trailers by around February or March as they need six months to build them. We have got a lot to do."

Haas is determined to approach F1 in his own way, and though he will operate a base in the UK, design and race operations will remain in North Carolina alongside the co-owned Stewart-Haas Racing team which won the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship with Kevin Harvick.

Indeed, his approach to NASCAR is very much shaping how he looks at F1, having taken note of the last three teams that preceded him in entering the 'Piranha Club'.

"Our business model in Formula One is based on our NASCAR race team where we use other people's engines and chassis," he says. "If Caterham doesn't come back there are going to be nine teams so we will be the tenth team and I don't think Bernie is going to allow start-up teams any more. If we prove that we can be successful maybe that would be a model of how you start up. But, to have someone like Caterham and Marussia, where they just started with nothing, that just doesn't work.

"Marussia and Caterham really accomplished a lot for what they had: to start a whole team, design your own car and the machine parts. They really did fulfil the idea of being a constructor by building the complete car. But I look at it and say it is insanity. I don't see how you learn. If you want to become a doctor, you have got to spend 10 years going to medical school. You've got to learn from somebody. That's why we have partnered with Ferrari."

Of course, based on its recent record, partnering with Ferrari might not appear the best choice.

"I think Ferrari has got some questions," he admits. "I think they would like to partner with somebody that can give them some feedback, so if we can provide value to them I think then that this will work out very well. I hope we can provide value to them. If all of a sudden there are four cars that have some information-exchange back and forth, that would probably be beneficial so both teams can do a little bit better.

"It is basically an experiment to see if this new way of doing things is beneficial and also whether a new team can be competitive. To me the new teams are just so far behind that they can't even catch up. If we do it right we will look like geniuses. If we can get it half right that would be pretty awesome."

Chris Balfe