23/12/2020
NEWS STORY
In a curious move, Haas is to have its own department at Maranello, though Mattia Binotto insists the American outfit will remain a customer team and not a B-team.
The move follows the recent announcement that head of chassis engineering, Simone Resta is joining the American outfit in an undefined role.
Moving forward, a department is being set up where employees will work exclusively for Haas - this at a time Ferrari has to reduce staff numbers in a bid to get down to the sort of levels necessitated by the impending budget cap.
"These persons will be in Maranello in a completely separate building to Scuderia Ferrari," said Binotto. "They will not have access to the Scuderia Ferrari building. It is separated and they will remain in there."
The Italian was keen to make clear however that Haas remains a customer team and there is no intention of sharing information.
"As far as we are concerned, they are customers," he said. "Some of our people will join their team, and I think that's a great opportunity for them. It's a great opportunity, because I think that by doing that, it can reinforce their organization, and their technical organisation.
"It is something that was necessary for us," he added, "because we had to reduce our organisation of today to fulfil what are the limitations of the budget cap.
"But still Haas is a fully independent team, compared to Ferrari," he insisted. "It is not a junior team and we are not exchanging information beyond what's possible in the regulation."
The Italian admits that he is happier letting his staff join Haas team than losing them to an out-and-out rival.
"If I may choose and I have to reduce my organisation, I'm certainly more happy to know that those guys are joining the Haas team and reinforcing them, instead of being simply on the market and available to other teams. That's certainly the way we are looking at the collaborations.