Haas' rebuild in full swing: "That's where my confidence comes from"
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Haas seem to have taken over the dubious honour of being the odd man out from Williams this season. Both Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin have been driving at the back of the grid and points seem to be further away than ever this season. Yet there is hope for Haas.
Future is Safe
After an excellent season in 2018, which saw the team finish fifth in the Constructors' Championship, the team has continued to slip away. From 93 points in 2018, Haas drops back to 28 points in 2019 and three points in 2020. In the podcast, In The Fast Lane team boss Guenther Steiner is, however, remarkably positive about the team's future.
"I think I can say that the team is safe and we're in a good place," Steiner looked ahead to the future for Haas. "We have a long-term commitment from Gene Haas to Formula One and our finances are good. We've found ways to cross that bridge so we're really happy with that." That things are going in the right direction financially will probably be largely due to the arrival of Uralkali as title sponsor, the company owned by Nikita Mazepin's father Dmitry.
Aiming for 2022
Steiner reiterated that 2021 is seen as a learning year for the two young drivers and that the arrows are fully focused on being good in 2022. "For 2022, we have been developing since the beginning of February. The guys are working all the time to get a good car. I don't know where we'll end up, but I'm confident we'll be in a good position again."
Last year's financial setbacks meant that many people had to be made redundant from the team, meaning that the engineering team now has to be rebuilt. "We have people from Ferrari coming to work with us and that gives confidence. We have made a lot of changes. We started rebuilding the team in December and in January we got going again, so that's where my confidence comes from."