F1 team owner ’embarrassed’ to receive help from rival team
F1 team owner ’embarrassed’ to receive help from rival team.
Haas F1 team owner Gene Haas said he was embarrassed to be unable to compete, despite receiving “help” from Ferrari.
Haas has maintained a close relationship with Ferrari since joining Formula 1.
The team, which finished 10th in the Constructors’ Championship last season and ultimately ended Gunther Steiner’s time as team principal, will receive powertrains, suspensions and other components from Ferrari to help it compete. Despite the on-track difficulties, Haas said the relationship was still very rewarding and urged the team to end the “harassment” of race weekends from 2024.
Haas: Ferrari helped despite on-track abuse.
“Ferrari has been very kind to us,” he told F1.com. “They’ve been with us since the beginning and built great engines. Their suspension is very good. I used their hardware a lot. It works very well. “They really help us. It’s a shame we can’t handle them better, but in the future we want to use better equipment that many other teams don’t have. “Things are going to get a lot more competitive. Red Bull has AlphaTauri. We can see these relationships developing and I think it will be very competitive, so having a partner like Ferrari will be very important… “We can’t stay so far behind Ferrari. We have to get closer to them.”
“I think we have the perfect formula,” he added. “We have more powerful Ferrari engines than anyone else has today.
“We have Ferrari equipment [depending on the parts allowed by the regulations] and a good chassis. I talk to a lot of engineers and I think our biggest weakness is aerodynamics. Our aviation program needs work.
“If you insult me on the street every weekend, I will stop.”
