AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — As home races go, the U.S. Grand Prix was just like the rest of the season for Haas F1. A clunker. The American-owned Formula One team finished last again. Its two cars, driven by rookies Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, were so far off the pace that they were two laps down when Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton raced past them to the finish. Yet team owner Gene Haas seemed anything but disappointed in Sunday’s results at the Circuit of the Americas, or the 2021 season as a whole. Haas said in an interview with The Associated Press that he has saved money by not dumping cash into his cars ahead of sweeping changes in car regulations next year. Haas Automation, the personal business of the team owner, has been booming — which was the whole reason he expanded into the international series. His CNC machine manufacturing company, headquartered in Oxnard, California, was considered one of the largest in North America when Haas was only the co-owner of the Stewart-Haas Racing NASCAR team. Now that Haas is in F1, Haas Automation has established a global footprint. So Gene Haas isn’t bothered that F1′s surging popularity in America hasn’t boosted his fledgling team. And don’t bother suggesting he should hire an American driver just because the team owner is from California and owns a race shop in North Carolina. Haas F1 is no longer the only team with American interests. The Williams team was purchased by New York investment firm Dorilton Capitol in 2020, but the team has no plans to move its headquarters and operations from England. “That’s probably a very sensitive and frustrating point for me,” Haas told AP during the U.S. Grand Prix weekend. “Everybody says, ‘Well, you should have an American driver.’ But the thing I don’t understand is why there isn’t more big-time sponsorship for an American driver? “It takes millions and millions of dollars. They need a benefactor to help an American driver race in Formula One. For all the talk about it, there’s no one that’s ever stepped up to do that.” Haas hasn’t shown much interest in developing an American driver and this season has turned his cars over to a German and a Russian. Schumacher comes from racing royalty and is the son of German seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher. Mazepin comes from Russian money; his billionaire father, Dmitry, is a major shareholder in Uralkali, the Russia-based fertilizer company that is Haas F1’s major sponsor. The Haas cars are indeed red, white and blue — but the scheme of red, blue and white mirrors the Russian flag. The team was mid-pack when Haas acquired the assets of the failed Marussia team and put a pair of cars on the grid in 2016. But the team has collapsed the last two years and Haas is the only team that hasn’t scored a point in 2021. Gene Haas said he was surprised F1 raced the abbreviated 2020 season in the pandemic, and that coming car changes made it prudent to save money instead of tweaking old engines for a little bit of speed.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — As home races go, the U.S. Grand Prix was just like the rest of the season for Haas F1.
