Well,
Gene Haas is not the type of individual to spend his whole F1 career mid-pack without factory backing.
Gene Haas is not the type of individual to spend his whole F1 career mid-pack without factory backing.
There's a reason why his NASCAR teams switched from Chevy to Ford.....
NASCAR is more or less an economy class compared F1 when it comes to expenses Ed!
We've seen the reputed budgets that Mercedes and Ferrari spend on engines alone, I'd suggest Honda and Renault have upped their outlays as well, and let's be honest, Cosworth DFV and DFY, Ford have since turned out less than stellar engines and lacked commitment to moving deeper into the F1 money pit.
Seriously, does Gene Haas have near enough in his Piggy Bank to finance such an enormously expensive power plant design, development, manufacture and support program????
With all due respect, Haas is an impressive business man but given the current state of the economy (International&Domestic) allied to deepening 'Trade War' disputes he'd do well to maintain the status quo. Like I said......'Who will pick up the tab?'
Just another 'Ford' point, they have already announced their intention to no longer build anything but 'Trucks and (IIRC) the Focus(?)' in the US. I may well stand corrected on this point.
Not exactly a confidence booster.
I wuz just thinkin'.....
Maybe the way forward for Haas would be via Mario Illien and Ilmor (if they they exist as a free agent) designing and building an exclusive power plant.
Ilmor did it for Penske in CART, firstly branded as 'Chevrolet', then 'Mercedes Benz', culminating in the Indy 500 demolition using a very special 'Mercedes Benz' branded push-rod unit.
And of course, the Ilmor V10 was first run by March, Sauber, then to MacLaren with great success.
Several years ago an Ilmor MotoGP bike was entered and run in a few rounds as a Wild Card promotional exercise, not taken on by any team which was both sad and stupid.
Kenny Roberts was focused on the KTM powered bike being (unsuccessfully) developed in house, maybe the Ilmor would have been a better choice.
And IIRC the RBR 'Renault' is supposed to have been subject to tweaking by Ilmor.
It might be worth Haas investing in an Ilmor project aimed at the next set of regulations and beyond.
I look at the obscene amounts of $$$ certain drivers get from their employers, Hamilton's $140M two year deal as well as Bottas' $10M one year plus an option are huge, the depth of the MB piggy bank boggles the mind.
What are the spending on engines alone?
You've opened a can of worms Ed.
