FEATURE
G
ene Haas can barely believe his
luck as his team, the first USowned Formula One outfit for 30
years, gets ready for a debut home grand
prix in Texas.
The machine tool industrialist, who
has been involved in NASCAR for more
than 15 years, is smiling with Haas eighth
in the standings and comfortably ahead of
Renault, Manor and Sauber.
With a Ferrari engine and close
technical collaboration, it was always
likely they would be more than just
making up the numbers but there were
also some cynics predicting a rude
awakening.
Instead, Haas made a splash by
becoming the first entrants since Brawn in
2009 to score points on their race debut
in Australia and the first all-new team to
score points since Toyota in 2002.
“When we first got involved … what
surprised me the most was probably …
how easy it was for us to get these 28
points,” the American told reporters after
practice in Austin.
“Now I’ve been involved in it for a
while, I’m starting to realise how lucky we
were to get those 28 points because it
really put us in a position for next year’s
constructors’ (championship) – I don’t
think we could do that.”
Frenchman Romain Grosjean scored
in three of the first four races and remains
the only Haas driver to have delivered,
with Mexican Esteban Gutierrez yet to
open his account.