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HAAS F1 TEAM MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 29, 2015Gene HaasGENE HAAS: You know, I think it's more contract negotiations. You know, I think we've stated before, it's going to be one of the Ferrari reserve drivers, but that's really up to Ferrari. You know, so when we get that finalized, then that would be the appropriate time to tell everybody. Q. You said that experience (inaudible) was there something about Romain's personality that (inaudible)? GENE HAAS: You know, I'll tell you, I didn't really look at his personality. I looked first at videos on YouTube. There was quite a few of them where he was side by side with other drivers over the years, and I was liking at his driving style quite a bit, where it was interesting to watch him against, say‑‑ I guess last year when Verstappen ran into him in Monaco, so you could see his style of being I think smoother on and off the throttle against an aggressive driver, but when you watch him going through the turns, usually the aggressive driver would out‑brake him and get past him but then he would smoothly go through the turn and out‑accelerate him. I think I like that style of being more reserved and just keeping your foot on the throttle and rolling in and out of the throttle and smoothly going through the turn as opposed to say an aggressive driver because I think aggressive drivers, they have to learn what the limits are, where Romain has already tried a lot of those moves and has found that being aggressive like that sometimes puts you into the wall. That's where experience comes versus driving. I like that. Plus he does really well on starts, F1 starts. When you're sitting there dicing it up with the 10 or 15 cars that are right next to you, he holds his ground, doesn't give up anything, plus he's usually able to like pull ahead of whoever he is with. And those are the kind of attributes I think as a driver that are very, very important. Plus he scores points. Q. Earlier this year (inaudible) is there a reason why (inaudible)? GENE HAAS: Well, I think it came down to rookie team, rookie driver. I think that combination wouldn't work. I mean, we're as rookie as he is, a rookie driver. I think he'd have been‑‑ he seems like a very good driver, and if he'd have had more Formula 1 experience, certainly would have been higher up on our list. But I think Romain, like I said, he's never won a race, and he's still aggressive. I think he wants to solidify his career. I mean, I would think in Formula1 that this would probably be his best years, so we think he's aggressive. We think he's smart, he's got the right driving style. He's got current experience. So those kind of really fell in his favor. Q. (Inaudible). GENE HAAS: No, no, they didn't. But more than likely, I think Ferrari had‑‑ I'm sure that Romain talked to Ferrari, so that probably helped his decision. Q. (Inaudible). GENE HAAS: You know, I've been here now for well over 10 years, and it's a great working‑class community. We bought this first piece of land, and then we had the land available, so it was a great place to put the F1 facility. You know, I think down the road, there's even more future development, too, that we can pursue here. We built our wind tunnel here. I can only say that our experiences in Kannapolis have all been very positive. Q. Are you concerned that Red Bull is currently looking for a top level (inaudible) obviously Ferrari would be in the mix there? GENE HAAS: Not really. I'll tell you, there's so much drama in Formula1, and I think the whole drama with like Red Bull and Lotus, you know, you see this stuff year after year after year, but in the end they all seem to show up the next year. It's always like there's a fire and we're all jumping out of the building, but from what I see, they all seem to show up and they keep racing. I'm sure that Formula1 would definitely be hurt by Red Bull's leaving, and we never would want that to happen. But I don't know, my point of view is it isn't going to happen, even though I don't really have any inside information at all, but I can't imagine a team like that pulling out of Formula$1. It's just such a big part of it. Q. There's also talk about changing the calendar and maybe the test days and the first test would go to March 1st. Would that affect you with trying to get the teams ready to go and be ready to test at that point? GENE HAAS: No. I think we're basically‑‑ we were on track to do the earlier test any ways, and then I think it was mid‑season they moved it up. I think a lot of it is because they're setting another race and what do they want to do for their mid‑year break. A week or two is not really going to have any significant effect on what we do. Q. Do you pretty much feel like you're ready to hit the ground running? GENE HAAS: I think we're actually very good. I was over in Milan, and actually got to see a model of our car that just came back from the wind tunnel, and I was very impressed with it. The designers over in Italy and the UK and U.S. here have done really a great job of putting this car together. It looks as‑‑ at least looks to me as fast as any car that's out there. Q. As far as a second driver‑‑ GENE HAAS: Well, you know, basically we've committed to having a Ferrari‑‑ one of their reserve drivers, so when we finalize that negotiation with Ferrari, that will be our second driver. Q. And will you hire a test driver, as well? GENE HAAS: Yeah, we would have a reserve driver. Hopefully maybe we can share reserve drivers with another team so we don't have to go through too much of an expense there. But every team always has at least one reserve driver. Q. Give us the state of the F1 team so far according to how you feel things are. GENE HAAS: Well, we've had a lot of time to prepare. We've selected our partners. We've found some interesting tie‑ups with Ferrari. They've been very, very helpful in terms of helping us with our car. You know, we're subcontracting a lot of the chassis built to Dallara. They're going to actually start working on our chassis. We do our own wind tunnel testing. I think we're really kind of ahead of the game. In Formula1, everything is always in flux, and when you finally go to race is when you finally nail everything down and build your car. I think we're‑‑ we feel comfortable. We've done everything right. We have the facilities. We have the people. We have the technical alliances. We have the contracts for engines, so we're good there. Q. How much time have you spent on this project, and does that mean you're spending less time with NASCAR? GENE HAAS: You know, I've spent‑‑ I spend probably, you know, 10, 20 percent of my time working on this, but I work probably 80 hours a week, so there's a lot of time there to spend. I don't think it's out of the ordinary in the NASCAR team to some degree it kind of runs itself now, so we don't have to worry about who our drivers are going to be next year. We know who they are. We pretty much know our sponsors. So the Formula1 thing to me is kind of exciting because it's something new to do, and hopefully the experience that I've learned in NASCAR can help build the Formula1 team. Plus I've got Joe Custer helping and Guenther is helping. Guenther has been in Formula1 for a long time. It's kind of fun. It's not like this is a total dark hole. Q. The impression is working with Ferrari that it's very much a back and forth, symbiotic relationship. We know what kind of things Ferrari can provide. What sort of things can you provide them when you guys work together? GENE HAAS: Well, I think that's part of this relationship. I'm not exactly sure what we provide with Ferrari other than maybe we're a more multiple partner than say some of the other teams. I'm not saying the other teams didn't want to be part of that, but because we were brand new, we didn't have any really previous tie‑ups or something that we had to work around. So I think Ferrari was interested in working with us. And also, I think we're utilizing more of the Ferrari equipment than other teams have. I mean, it's always available. Every team has to obtain engines from a supplier, and then you have to get your brakes typically from Brembo or an API and your wheels come from Pirelli. Every team has to basically get a lot of its parts and pieces from the same suppliers. We're just taking a little bit more from Ferrari than say other teams would do. Q. You said that obviously your goal for this team is to increase the awareness overseas of Haas Automation. Going off of what you just said, do you think Ferrari is looking in the U.S. market to increase the awareness here? GENE HAAS: Well, I don't know. Ferrari has such a huge recognition. I think it's probably one of the top two brand names in the world, and when you say Ferrari, everybody knows what it is. I don't think that we're going to increase Ferrari's awareness in the United States that much, but at the same time maybe working with an American team or something like that maybe changes their image a little bit in a different forum. But you know, it's good working with them. They've been very, very open. You know, I've got to be inside of their Formula1 shop, and they've basically shown me all the bits and pieces of the cars and the engines, and without reserve. I'm kind of surprised. Q. When you look at the relationship Ferrari has, is there an opportunity for you to create the same sort of fever amongst American fans for F1 because that really doesn't exist right now? GENE HAAS: You know, there's a lot of die‑hard F1 fans in the U.S., and it's a very core group. I'll tell you, they sell an awful lot of Ferraris in the United States, particularly in southern California, and they are a die‑hard group. They love anything to do with Ferrari. That's true all over the world. I think that that tie‑up with us is all beneficial. I think just having an association with a name like Ferrari is a dream. Q. Is it just a matter of (inaudible)? GENE HAAS: I think so. Yeah, we pretty much know who it is, but it's really not responsible to say you have a driver until you've actually signed him. I'll tell you, I've seen things go south pretty quick. You never know. Either one of those drivers might get a call to drive for another team or a better deal for them, but I'm not too worried about it. I think it'll one way or the other‑‑ one of those drivers will be available. Q. If you have Kurt Busch signed you should say that. GENE HAAS: Maybe we'll get Romain in a Cup car, and that'll be fun to watch. Q. You've been involved a lot in racing, but I'm sure along the way there have been some surprises. What's been the biggest shock that you didn't see coming? GENE HAAS: Well, I think initially we planned on‑‑ we were going to do everything out of this facility, and we applied for the license a couple of years ago. We had applied for it, and we actually started to go, okay, we're going to go ahead and build this because we always got assurances it was going to happen, and then there was delays, so once the delays came, that was kind of a shock, like okay, maybe I over jumped the gun here. But when this building was built half of it was going to be for the 41 team anyway, so it wasn't a total letdown if we didn't get our license. Fortunately we did get our license. We had to go over to Geneva and sit in front of the FIA and get grilled about what we were going to do and how we were going to do it, and ultimately when we finally‑‑ we had the building actually built when we had our license, and all of a sudden it became apparent that building a car from scratch was going to be a monumental task, so we had to change that direction a little bit, too. I think fundamentally the delay in getting the license and all of a sudden being focused or faced with this job of trying to build a car, and once you started to see the complexities of these cars, it was like, okay, we're in trouble. Q. Once you know you're in, you must have had some dreams of where you'd like the team to go. Are some of those dreams still realistic as you look further down the road? Where do you see the team five years from now? GENE HAAS: Well, I think we do the same thing we did in NASCAR. You go out there and you race with the competitors and you become part of the garage, and once you're accepted, you'll be tolerated, and they won't like you, but then after a while, they'll accept you, and then now you're racing with the big boys. If you can race with the big boys, sometimes you can beat them at their own game, and that's our end game is to basically use their bat and ball, and we're going to go play ball with them. Q. Tomorrow will somewhat probably be bittersweet for you; is it an emotional roller coaster? GENE HAAS: Well, I'll tell you, in racing every time you think you've got it in your hand, it just seems to slip away. Yeah, that was a bad‑‑ I think disappointing is a definite understatement of what it felt like on Sunday. But in racing, it's like, man, you've just got to kind of deal with it. Same thing with Formula1. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of disappointing days. But it's an interesting sport. It kind of teaches you a lot about humiliation and realizing that it's not easy to do. But once you do it, it's‑‑ you're just amazed. Q. All the politics in F1 between Ferrari and Lotus, you mentioned all the teams‑‑ are you looking forward to that side of F1? GENE HAAS: Well, there's a lot of drama. I'll tell you, last year they were thinking three teams was going to drop out, but the reality is that only Caterham dropped out. You know, there's always this thing that they say two or three teams are always going to drop out, but they always seem to show up the next year and they always seem to be racing. I think Formula1 is a little bit more transparent than say NASCAR because in Formula1 everything is always publicly discussed. They have these strategy meetings and they throw out all these outrageous things in the strategy meetings and the media immediately picks it up as fact. Hey, this is an idea that someone just threw out there, and whether it'll even make it to the next level is very remote. But there is a lot of drama in Formula1. Probably I think there's more drama in Formula1 than I think in NASCAR. But still, it's Formula1. It's the ultimate in Motorsports. I think from a technical standpoint when you start to look at the cars and what these guys are doing, they're cutting edge on CFD wind tunnel testing, the engines are unbelievably complex, just the switching from a standard internal combustion engine to a hybrid internal combustion engine with turbo and a battery, it was probably 10 times more complicated than the old internal combustion engine. I think that really piqued a lot of interest in terms of the engine builders and the automotive suppliers. Q. When you're dealing with the FIA, you're dealing with NASCAR, in what ways are their approaches similar and how are they different? GENE HAAS: Well, FIA is definitely a lot more democratic. NASCAR is more like a dictatorship. They kind of basically say here's what we want to do. They listen to your input, but ultimately they make the decisions. In Formula1, they have these strategy sessions where anybody can throw out any idea you want, then they vote on it. That's fundamentally different than NASCAR where they basically listen to everybody and say here's what we're going to do as opposed to everybody gets together and let's vote on it. That's the fundamental difference that I see anyways. Q. (Inaudible) number of testing days from three to two. Is that going to play any sort of role? GENE HAAS: I don't know, I thought they had two four‑day test sessions. Q. Two test sessions instead of three. GENE HAAS: I'll tell you, they're always changing the rules trying to save costs, but every time they try to save money, they just spend more. At some point‑‑ I think Formula1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of automotive excellence, and all these restrictions and stuff, I'm not sure who they benefit. Maybe the smaller teams that are trying to save costs, but at the same time, pushing the envelope is really what it's about, from the aero standpoint, let's have less and less testing. It just seems like it pushes the teams to go and spend money someplace else. Q. Now that you have more experienced driver all set, what traits are you looking for in your next driver? GENE HAAS: Well, you know, I've stated before that our second driver will be probably from the Ferrari reserve drivers, and they're going to be good drivers, just maybe a little‑‑ they need more experience. So from there, obviously we want a good driver, but we also want someone that's not too aggressive that's going to wreck our cars. We're really looking for like Romain, his experience, what we're hoping for is that he's going to be mature enough to realize when he can push the envelope or not as far as being aggressive, and the second driver we know is probably going to try to be over aggressive so he can make a name for himself, but we want to make sure that we don't wind up hurting ourselves. Q. What's the next major item of business? GENE HAAS: You know, the next major thing is basically when we start to build the car. There's some hard deadlines as far as when the tooling for the chassis has to actually go in production because it takes almost a month to build each chassis, and we're getting very, very close to the point where we have to basically say to engineering, okay, you're done engineering and now we actually have to go and produce that mold, and then from there we have to produce a chassis, because we have to have‑‑ I think one chassis is obviously for testing, and then you have to begin working on your second chassis, your third and fourth chassis actually for building our race cars, which we'll probably start to build sometime in January. Q. Talk about the excitement of this day and this opportunity for Romain. GENE HAAS: You know, we were looking for an experienced F1 driver, and I think Romain met all of the criteria that we had set forth. A current driver, experienced, reasonably mature, knows a lot about strategies and car setup, knows about the racetracks. He's been to almost all the racetracks many, many times. Those are fundamental requirements, and he meets all those with a grade A. Q. What did it mean to find such an experienced driver, and what are the next steps in this program? GENE HAAS: Well, we still have to go back to obviously building our car. That's the fundamental thing, and getting the team together. It just basically settles that issue. Okay, we know we have our driver. There was a lot of expectations from the media about, okay, who's the driver going to be, and now that we've said who the driver is, that's all go away. Q. This is a monumental task that you've put together. What does it mean to bring an F1 team back to the United States? GENE HAAS: Well, I really wasn't thinking about the historical implications of it all. I'm thinking more in terms of we want to go out there and race, and I just find the F1 challenge is just very intriguing to me. It's like being able to participate in that level of racing, and now that I've been in it a little bit, the cars are incredibly complicated, and I like that part of it. It's from a technical standpoint of being able to take some of the best engineering. I was up with the guys yesterday in our CFD area, and we've got some‑‑ I don't know, I think we've got some like MIT guys up there that are going to help us design the car, and then when you start looking at the actual models, there's a lot of work and detail that goes into the smallest‑‑ like the radiuses on the front of the intake nozzle. They have to start worrying about how big are those radiuses, and that's just that kind of detail‑‑ it's very intriguing and it's a lot of work. A lot of work. Q. Looking forward down the road, Romain mentioned he might want to jump into a stock car one day. Obviously that would be something in the future, but great to have a driver with his experience? GENE HAAS: Well, I think we have the opportunity every once in a while to run a fifth car, and that would be‑‑ it would be interesting to see how well he would do in a car like that. I think it would be great publicity to take a Formula1 driver, and any time you put a Formula1 driver in a NASCAR car, they want to see how he's going to stand up because there's always this issue about who's better, the NASCAR guys or the F1 guys. Q. Going off of what you were just asked (inaudible)? GENE HAAS: Well, we don't go searching for these personalities, they just seem to show up. You know, I'll tell you, when you're in racing, it's kind of a fairly small family of people, and they're all at heart racers. At least that's what you hope they all are. You don't really look so much for the personalities as you do the talent. The talented people are going to have whatever personalities, just deal with it. The good news is that there is really part of a divergence, I think, in the personalities. Romain, he also is a cook. He was telling me he cooks at home and he cooks at a restaurant, so he's actually a very accomplished French cook. I've never met a driver that ever did that. I think having a French driver in NASCAR, or at least being part another part of a NASCAR team is going to be very interesting because the French typically wouldn't be associated with kind of our redneck NASCAR guys. Q. (Inaudible). GENE HAAS: Yeah, he fits right in. I'm sure he'll probably adapt to it very, very quickly. Probably find out that driving a NASCAR car is a really different experience than a Formula1 car. NASCAR it's like you're driving on ice, and in a Formula1 car it's all about downforce. Q. So was it a tough sell? You talked to a lot of experienced drivers you said. Was it a tough sell to talk about joining a new team? GENE HAAS: Well, we didn't really talk to that many. We talked to a lot of obviously rookie drivers, people that wanted to get a ride in a Formula1 car. There's plenty of those out there. But that just wasn't really our goal. Our goal was to get someone experienced because in Formula1 you'd better know what you're doing. If you don't, you'll get so far behind so quickly, you won't believe it. I think it was a great‑‑ I think it was really a great opportunity. I guess I was a little bit surprised with Romain wanting to actually join up with us because there's only 20 seats available, at least this year, of available drivers, so who's going to pop up? Probably over half the drivers have contracts, and a lot of drivers in the back are rookies, so there really aren't that many available drivers, so I think he was a find for us. Q. He's got a great base of technical as well as the driving skill. Where do you feel him making the greatest impact, technically or being able to drive the car? GENE HAAS: Well, I think his greatest input to us will be telling us what the car is doing. Okay, here's‑‑ he's driven other cars. He's driven other power units, so he knows how they function and what to expect, so now he's going to be in our car with our Ferrari hybrid unit, and hopefully he'll be able to say, okay, this is where we're off, and this is what we need to do, and this is the direction we want to go in. Also we were talking to him last night at dinner a lot about strategies, okay, what tracks do we need to worry about and what tracks do we just have to accept our fate, and he knows that. So those are very, very important details about where you apply your energies and where you just kind of resign yourself to where you're at. Q. I know it's hard to predict, but is there‑‑ what would be a successful debut this year? GENE HAAS: Points. Points equals money, and money equals fame. We're here to race our cars, and we're here to be in Formula1 for a long time. The difference with teams in NASCAR and Formula1, they pay you to show up if you get points. Those points are really vital. Any driver that finishes 10th or higher gets points, and those points determine the piece of the pie that you'll get in the following year. For us, points are important because we're here to race. We're here to race for a long time and do it in our‑‑ within our budget. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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