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Romain Grosjean is no longer being asked if switching from what became the Renault works team this year to the all-new Haas project was a wise choice. The Frenchman is now fifth overall in the world championship, ahead even of Ferrari's championship contender Sebastian Vettel.
"It's not bad!" Grosjean grinned after a second-consecutive points finish for the strongly Ferrari-linked American team in Bahrain. "I'm what, fifth?" he told France's RMC. "I think I've never been that high in the drivers' world championship. It's incredible and a bit crazy. I hope that from the outside it looks as beautiful as it does on the inside," Grosjean enthused.
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The team has bucked the normal trend of building an F1 entrant from the ground by buying as many parts from Ferrari and collaborating with the Italian giant as much as the rules will allow. "Perhaps we made a mistake!" joked Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene, after Grosjean finished fifth in Bahrain. The French driver now sandwiches the two works Ferrari drivers' in the drivers' standings. Seriously, of course, I have been impressed by their results," Arrivabene added of Haas. "They have worked very hard and we should be happy, because these Haas cars have Ferrari engines."
But as impressive as Haas' feat might seem, it is not universally popular. Bernie Ecclestone told Autoweek recently that the 2016 Haas is "basically a Ferrari. It will perform because it's a Ferrari." So for a true independent like Williams, the Haas model is a dangerous development.
"The status of being a constructor has been gradually eroded," said Pat Symonds, Williams' technical boss. "Some would like it completely eroded," he told the New York Times in Bahrain. "What Haas has done is good for him, but I don't know if that is really the way F1 should be going." (GMM)
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Replies (5)
Login to replykerolitos
Posts: 4
Personally, I rather have an healthy team like Haas who brings good competition, even if they are a bit out of standar F1 way of doing things, than a almost constantly collapsing team that needs the back up from often awful paying drivers, who does not bring anything to the show and leave after 2 unsuccessful years
(Virgin, Catheram, Super Auguri, Hrt, Mf1, just to name the latest)
Also it give an opportunity to upcomming drivers to have a competitive car and show what they can do, which is maybe the most important thing
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
Sour grapes?
khasmir
Posts: 893
I don't really see the problem. Also, don't forget that Haas had unlimited time in the windtunnel and no limit on CFD work before the start of this season where other teams are heavily restricted. If Haas wants to beat Ferrari at some point they will have develop more parts of their own instead of buying from others.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Well, I questioned the fairness of this at first, and Im not sure its fair now either, but they have been very competitive, and its a smart thing really. In any case, it is fair to their drivers: Grosjean has now recieved a good chance of showing what he is worth, and he deserved that. But the reliability is a concern, they and Ferrari need to adress this.
mclarenfan1968
Posts: 1,027
Symonds is just jelly his team is getting whooped by newcomers who didn't just show up and buy an existing team, they had to come in fresh and learn everything from scratch, they did build a lot of their car. They did the work on aero using Ferrari facilities, so what? It's like saying if you designed a smartphone chip from the ground up and then have Samsung fabricate if for you then you did nothing. That's bollocks, fabrication/manufacturing matters less when it is a service available to the willing customers. What HAAS did buy is the complete power-train+gearbox. Many major teams have partners working exclusively on those parts so how is that any different to this now?
Obvious sour grapes is obvious.