America joins F1

[Fijiandoce]

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2014/4/15715.html

Formula One racing’s governing body, the FIA, confirmed on Friday that it has accepted an application from Gene Haas to enter a new team in the F1 world championship.

Has anyone told this guy Formula 1 has legit corners and not just a slight bend? :snicker

Regardless, looks like Caterham and Marussia (or whoever they come back as) will finally have someone to beat!

Im being overly mean
Good to see more teams joining the sport. private teams at that. always nice to have personalities on the grid. the likes of EJ, Ron, Ross, Stoddart and not just company appointed figure heads.

 

[keefy]

Does that mean there is 1 more team or a team has lost their license?

 

[Fijiandoce]

to the best of my knowledge, F1 has gained a new team.

However, Marussia announced their main sponsor was pulling the plug. so don't know what will become of them. If they get a new owner, they should stay in the sport.

24 cars next season IF all goes well

No prizes for guessing which company they're going to first for engines :snicker

EDIT:
I wonder if they will base out of america or if they'll move to the UK to be closer to the pool of experienced mechanics?

 

[Varsh]

I think there's another manufacturer that is wanting to join too as I read it on Autosport last week. That would mean that the F1 grid would be full next season assuming Marussia stay in.

 

[keefy]

Don't forget Honda are back next season as engine suppliers. McLaren at least are utilising them.

 

[Fijiandoce]

true, i was just thinking that.

However, honda are relatively unknown (in very, very, modern f1 times) and would've far less running under the new reg's. Even Renault should have their stuff sorted next season.

Honda would still require that real life learning curve.

 

[JordieDAFC]

They will be taking the place of the old HRT team. Think Bernie and Todt had agreed for another team to join so it could be 26 cars if another team does come in.

Surely it would be better for them to be based in Europe? It would probably cost too much to transport stuff from the US over to Europe and the fly away's too.

Hrt had a factory built for them just before they left so they could end up there.

Edit -

[video=youtube;xsvhXe6aeiM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsvhXe6aeiM[/video]

 

[Fijiandoce]

i actually hope they base out of US.

add to the flavour of the sport :beguiled:

mechanics putting their heritage on the line? rivalries in the pits as well as on the track? rivalries in the engineering dept's too? ohh that would be good

 

[keefy]

The team needs to be based in USA to bring in USA fans, if it was based in Europe they wouldn't like it at all.

 

[Surebrec]

whenever I think of a US F1 team, it takes me back to this:

http://force1usa.com/

the site is pretty much a mess now, when it first launched, it looked like a 5 year old had made it.

short story:

some texan named don pentecost (I think he was from texas anyway) had developed an ingenious alternative to current conventional fuels, one that was guaranteed to be 100% green. he also made the bold statement that he intended to enter F1 and was looking for financial investment of over $100 million a year for a minimum of 5 years. using his new top secret eco fuel technology, he guaranteed that he would deliver a world championship within the first 5 years. not only that, he proudly announced that he himself, would be the future & first 57 year old american formula 1 world champion, despite not having any experience whatsoever in motor racing.


if F1 hasn't cracked the states by now, let's face it, it never will. that is not a fault with F1, the problem lies with the USA itself. when it comes to sports, the US is arguably the most insular nation in the world.

ecclestone has tried pretty much every trick in the book to get a foothold in america, and they have all failed.

barring a fully competitive, fully american operated team, with 2 american drivers, racing in a season where at least have the calendar is on US soil, it's not going to succeed.

I'd predict that any US F1 team would fold within a half a decade, especially if they are are trawling around at the back of the grid being lapped every season.

[QUOTE="keefy, post: 6328336]The team needs to be based in USA to bring in USA fans, if it was based in Europe they wouldn't like it at all.[/QUOTE]

and that's part of the reason why it will likely fail, to stand any chance, the team NEEDS to be based in europe.

 

[Admartian]

I feel like the first American car is gonna cause a crash for not knowing that there is more than one turn.

*adds to the punching bag*!

:snicker

 

[chrisw26308]

I'm sure it will be tough on the Americans coming into f1. They will probably lag behind before winning anything.

Juan Montoya and Danica Patrick are finding nascar isn't easy. So crossing into someone else's territory and beat them isn't an easy feat.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

[Duffman]

I think it's great, we need a bigger grid and the more teams the merrier! Hope they change the safety car rule though, could you imagine what it would be like waiting for all those cars to unlap themselves lol. It would be like in Bahrain where we had to wait 2 or 3 laps for them to catch up :lol:

 

[Varsh]

They do that purely for safety reasons otherwise it'll be like a rolling starting grid after a wet quali.

 

[Duffman]

Like Brundle said though they could do it a much faster way and just tell them to drop to the back and knock off a lap then once they are all in order let the race go ahead then, it would be a hell of a lot quicker lol

 

[Varsh]

That would be a bit unfair then as if the SC came out between first and second for instance when there was a 10 second gap, then first will drive all the way around while second can't and thus would end up being a lap behind.

 

[Duffman]

Well first would just drop back and let the safety car through in that case I guess.....

 

[Varsh]

In which case you would have to wait a loooooooooong time again for P1 to drop back, and what is the margin gap then to say that P1 should drop back behind the SC? Brundle's idea is simple and to the point but it's too unfair.

 

[Duffman]

Which way would you work it then if you where asked?

 

[Varsh]

I'm just trying to think how they do it now, does the SC pull out on track to pick up the lead car or does it come out when required?

 

[Duffman]

It is supposed to pull out on track and pick up the lead car in F1, in other motorsport it comes out when required!

 

[Varsh]

In that case then if it does pick up the lead car then having the rest drop back would be better and quicker like Brundle said, if it was like the others then it wouldn't work.

 

[Duffman]

I think that must be the case and where he got the idea from, like you say if it just came out as needed it really wouldn't work lol

 

[JordieDAFC]

NASCAR team boss Gene Haas is eying a tie-up with renowned single-seater constructor Dallara to build a car for his entry into the 2015 Formula 1 world championship.

The FIA granted Haas Formula an F1 licence last Friday and the American is planning to rely on technical partnerships to get his Californian squad on the grid in time for next season.

"We're not looking to start our own shop," Haas confirmed when asked by AUTOSPORT if he was looking for a partner to design and build a car for him.

"We've had preliminary talks with Dallara and they're ready to go.

"They have a complete facility, they're experienced, [and] they've been involved in racing forever as far as I can remember.

"It would be insurmountable to say we going to figure out how to build a chassis by ourselves and hire all the people in nine months.

"We're going to have to compromise on what we do with construction of the car and acquire whatever we can."

Haas said the ultimate goal was to learn enough for his team to become a constructor in its own right.

"We want to learn," he added. "We're not going to just go over there and say 'build us a chassis', we want to put people in there to learn the processes because ultimately our goal is to become a constructor.

"Our [first] car is not going to be the Haas Formula car entirely, a lot of the technology will come from our partners to begin with.

"But we'll learn and figure it out and eventually the car will evolve into our own.

"We can beat the Europeans at their own game."

MERCEDES VERSUS FERRARI

Haas has yet to chose an engine supplier, but team principal Gunther Steiner confirmed the squad had already held talks with both Ferrari and Mercedes.

"We need to define our technical partner and go from there," said Steiner. "We will announce in the next four to six weeks what we are doing.

"We want to make the right decision. We don't want to jump and then say 'Woah! We got this one wrong' and then fail."

Haas revealed he has the option to defer his entry until 2016 if he cannot get the team up and running in time, but confirmed the focus was very much on trying to be ready in time for next season.

"I think 2015 is too close and 2016 too far," said Haas.

"If we wait we're going to end up spending even more money because we'll be in a neutral position until the middle of next year.

"We're going to have to beg, borrow or steal whatever we can to arrive at that first race and compete.

"It's a tough decision and something we're going to have to figure out in the next few weeks.

"It won't be easy but if we say we're going to be there in 2015 that's what we'll do."

Has nobody told him how successful HRT were when they used a Dallara chassis?

 

[keefy]

Have Dallara ever made a decent chassis for F1?

 

[Duffman]

[QUOTE="keefy, post: 6329196]Have Dallara ever made a decent chassis for F1?[/QUOTE]

Well I'm not sure you can really call HRT a successful chassis but it was a chassis nether the less :lol:

Who knows with these new rules they could turn it round and make a competitive chassis, we shall have to wait and see......

 

[Varsh]

Looks like Juan Pablo Montoya is echoing our thoughts:

Juan Pablo Montoya believes new Formula 1 entrant Gene Haas's plan to run his team from America is "mad".

The seven-time grand prix winner, who raced in F1 from 2001-2006, believes running a team from the US cannot work.

Speaking at last weekend's Long Beach IndyCar event, Montoya said: "If he wants to build [the team] here in the States I think it's completely mad.

"You can't even call it mad because it makes no sense.

"You are not going to get people from England to move to Charlotte."

Montoya, who has returned to single-seater racing in IndyCar this year after racing in NASCAR since leaving F1, has also warned the sport against turning its back on its European roots.

"I think Formula 1 has to be careful not to discard Europe too much," he added.

"That is where the original fans are, where the car fans are. You don't want to keep driving away from Europe.

"I know other places will give them more money to go but if you take the British GP, or the Spanish GP away, imagine that.

"There are a lot of big races and you don't want to screw that."

HAAS ACCEPTS DOUBTERS

During a press conference on Monday, Haas said he understood why many outsiders have doubts about his team.

"There is obviously scepticism in anything that anybody's trying to do that hasn't been done before," he said.

"The only way I can allay that is to go out there and do it. I think we have the flexibility.

"When things don't go right, we go in a different direction, and we do whatever it takes to get things done.

"I can't tell you about the other people that fail. I don't know why they fail.

"Maybe where they failed, I can figure out how not to. But I firmly believe that we have the right tools to go forward on this and be successful at it.

"I've been pretty successful at taking on projects that other people say you can't do."

Source - Autosport

Considering that most of the entire paddock's engineers actually come from the UK it would be rather nonsensical for a team to be ran in the US and Montoya certainly did eschew this straight away. Haas needs to rethink his position on where he wants this team to run from. He can still have Dallara create the chasis for him if he wants but do not set up a team in the US. There's a reason why American car engineers are rated as creating gas guzzling cars, because they don't know how to eek out high amounts of power from small engines. I suppose with such a large land mass and tonnes of oil there wasn't any need, F1 is a completely different story though.

 

[Duffman]

Certainly has a lot to think about now they have been granted a license, lets just hope they don't go the same way as USF1!