Gunther Steiner, Haas Formula 1 team principal, claims that there are no plans of changing current team model. He believes current team model can work despite approaching budget cap with new sponsor.
In October last year, Haas announced international payment company MoneyGram as its new title sponsor. The deal has provided a big financial help to one of smallest ops on F1 grid.
Steiner, Haas F1 boss, admitted that new sponsor’s injection of cash would allow the team to play a t a more level playing field. The injection of cash would help the team reach budget cap.
Despite budget cap restriction, the team intends to keep working on the same team model. It has closely worked worked with Ferrari since joining the grid in 2016. It enjoys a close technical relationship with Ferrari, which helps in different technical aspects.
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Haas has announced its new 2023 livery. At the end of last season, Steiner made clear the team prioritization for this season. He intended to remain focused on car development rather than team’s over all working model.
“We want to invest the money in the car,” Steiner told in an interview.
“At the moment, whatever we have got, we invest in the car. There is nothing that you want to do outside at the moment. The system we have got, we just want to stabilise it and just make sure that we use everything to make the car go quick, nothing else.
“We are not focusing on other stuff, [saying] ‘oh we want to do this ourselves’ – no. Let’s stabilise how we do it now, and then if we want to change something, change it after, because otherwise if you try to do too much, we trip over.
“At the moment, we stick with the model, get the best out of it. If we can find savings or better investments within the budget cap by doing parts ourselves, then we do that afterwards. But not straightaway.”
The MoneyGram provides a greater financial stability to Haas, that would save the team from hot waters.
Steiner said: “I’d say we were never in a bad position.
“2020 was not an easy position, because of the pandemic when that broke out. But I think yes, it puts us in a very solid position.
“The best one or not? I think in the beginning, we were very solid with everything. When we came in in ’16, there was no budget cap, so you are a lot lower than the other teams, even if you are in a good financial situation.
“But now also compared to the other ones, we are very competitive financially – not competitive, we are equal.”
