Gene Haas: “The collaboration with Ferrari is very productive”

One of the topics of discussion last season was the collaboration between Ferrari and the newly formed Haas, an American team that debuted in Formula 1 this year.

Obviously the design and development of the single-seater that would later become the VF-16 was born about two years ago, to become more concrete in 2015. This car was developed in close collaboration with Dallara (chassis manufacturer) and the Maranello team which, in addition to supplying the Power Unit and transmission, allowed the team to use its own wind tunnel and its own simulators. By circumventing the regulation, with this expedient, Ferrari was able to increase its hours in the wind tunnel to develop the 2016 car (since a team that has not yet debuted in Formula 1 has no limitation on the number of hours that can be spent in the tunnel of the wind).

Gene Haas at Autosport he commented positively on the cooperation established between his team and Ferrari: “The collaboration with Ferrari works very well and I hope that we can do even more. There has always been a bit of hesitation on Ferrari's part about working with us, due to FIA regulations. So they were very careful to make sure they followed the regulations to the letter and we were also very honest with the FIA ​​about what we were doing. In hindsight I think we could have done even more".

Although the Ferrari was a little too vigilant in some respects, the owner of the American team understands in a certain sense the diffidence in daring, in order to respect the FIA ​​regulations: "In the end, Ferrari's objective is to beat the Mercedes, like us, has the objective of beating our rivals, therefore it's as if we have a common goal. Anything we can do to achieve this is a positive thing for both of us, so I think more cooperation can help. But Ferrari is very careful. She wants to be sure to follow all the directives imposed by the FIA ​​and they do it in a manner almost to the point where it seems like something frustrating".

After the first races with very positive and certainly unexpected results, the first problems arose, especially related to the chassis. It is no coincidence that the two pilots often Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez, have often complained about the car's handling: “As much as many people might think they are the same, our car is quite different from Ferrari's. We're struggling a bit with our chassis, we're trying to figure it out. Ferrari supplies us with many parts but they cannot necessarily provide us with information on how these parts work. This depends on our staff. We started practically from scratch and there was a lot to learn on our own, so as time goes by it is necessary for the staff to slowly understand how our single-seater works. We can't go to Ferrari and ask them, it's up to us to understand on our own and it's not easy to find out" concluded Gene Haas.

Gianluca D'Alessandro