Behind the scenes of America's new F1 team

As far as serendipity goes, it simply can't get better: as AUTOSPORT flew over Virginia and into Charlotte, North Carolina for a first-ever media visit to Haas F1 Team's virgin facility, the somewhat controversial Kurt Busch celebrated his first NASCAR win of the 2015 campaign, with team-mate Kevin Harvick second.

The top three in Richmond, Virginia was completed by Jimmie Johnson, also driving a Chevrolet.

What, though, does this result in a steel-body series in a neighbouring state have in common with our exclusive visit to the nascent Formula 1 team's now-completed base in Kannapolis, 30-odd miles north-east of Charlotte in NASCAR's heartland?

In a nutshell, Busch and Harvick make up half of Stewart-Haas Racing's line-up and Johnson drives for Hendrick Motorsports, which supplies the majority of SHR's hardware, including front/rear chassis frames (to SHR specifications) and engines.

This philosophy of outsourcing whatever componentry is permitted by regulations, then internally "adding value to the basic package" - as Haas COO Joe Custer terms it - provides the blueprint for Haas F1.

In addition to the complete engine, transmission and electronics package, Ferrari is also supplying "all the suspension, all non-listed parts" to Haas, explains Gunther Steiner, the former Ford rally and Jaguar F1/Red Bull Racing technical director who devised the programme over a three-year period before persuading machine tool magnate Gene Haas to back the project.

NASCAR efforts are the team's sole focus - but not for long © LAT

"You can look at appendix six of the sporting regulations*, and say 'this is what Haas gets from Ferrari'. The things we have to make by regulation, and we will make, are chassis monocoque and what they call 'wet' surfaces - everything outside the car, the bodywork, including radiators. This is what we design ourselves and we make ourselves.

"The wings are part of the bodywork. We have to make the [exhaust] tailpipe ourselves; you can go to a certain point, then have to make your own."

Despite Steiner majority-owning a composite business (Fibreworks) in Charlotte, composites will initially be sourced in Europe "to ensure we establish a good relationship with people. In [Charlotte] we're making pit equipment, and we've started that process already. We also machine [metal] parts for the windtunnel model, then ship them over."

Ferrari sourcing means suspension mounting points will be as per Maranello, as will be brakes, suspension uprights, pedal box, steering rack and fuel cell.

The monocoque will be very similar to Ferrari's but, stresses composites expert Steiner, "the trick in the chassis is mainly in lay-up, how composites are made, how structures are made. It's not only the geometry. The geometry is obvious: if you've got the battery box and fuel tank from Ferrari you can't do much different. But it's completely legal."

"We get the mounting points, we get the steering rack, we need to bolt it to a chassis. If we want the same suspension, we'd better put it in the same place, otherwise it won't work. It'll look similar [to Ferrari], yes."

Relationship with fellow US operation Hendrick will help the team with parts manufacture © LAT

All this is matter-of-factly explained in one of five conference rooms - named after F1 circuits - contained within the pristine 140,000 sq. foot double-deck building situated at 4001 Haas Way (SHR is situated next door, at 6001).

Half the ground floor (i.e. a quarter of the total area, which equates to one-and-a-half rugby fields) is allocated to SHR to supplement its main facility.

"It was half completed last summer, but only half of it," says Steiner. "Not the F1 side because we were still planning the interior. It was started early last year, before we received the go-ahead [from the FIA], which shows real commitment...

"I think we'll end up with about 50 people here, depending on the way we go after a few years. We have to see how we get on in the beginning with producing the car in Europe, how much will gradually move here."

As befits an offshoot of one of the world's largest machine-tool operations, "the plan is to machine parts here, not for the whole car, just parts. At the moment we are doing the scale model and our pit equipment. That started two months ago," explains Steiner.

"In Banbury we will have a bit more people - 50 or 60. In Italy the total working with our people, including Dallara people, is about 70. About seven or eight of them are on our payroll."

Dallara? Steiner explains that design and development of the car has been outsourced to the Italian race car constructor, which dabbled in F1 over the years, most recently as supplier to the ill-fated Campos/HRT project.

Ferrari link is crucial for Haas and Steiner (right) says Arrivabene is on board © XPB

But, he stresses, this one is different: Haas has control over the project, with Haas chief designer Rob Taylor having overall responsibility for the car, not Dallara.

"So, we have about 170 people, including 70 at Dallara. They work solely for us. They are contracted, like they would be employees, but instead of setting up our own design office with the infrastructure, we made a deal with Dallara, but our chief designer manages them.

"They have their own project manager, a Dallara guy, but technically they are managed by us. To me they are like our employees."

We compare the total with Ferrari customer Marussia before its restructure and reincarnation as Manor. "It is fewer people than Marussia had," acknowledges the German-speaking Italian from the country's south Tyrol area, "but Marussia did everything themselves. We are buying most of the stuff.

"If you take the amount of work we do compared with Marussia, it's a lot less than they did, because they designed everything themselves - every suspension [part]. That takes 40, 50 people, so we are more than them. Plus all the stuff we get from Ferrari is proven stuff, designed by qualified F1 people. On that basis we have a lot more people than Marussia had."

Although Gene Haas owns one of motorsport's best windtunnels in the Windshear facility situated 15 minutes from Haas Way, the F1 programme uses Ferrari's windtunnel on a project basis, simply as it would have required too much by way of adaptation to cater for F1's 60 per cent scale-model stipulation. However, Windshear GM Brian Nelson does not rule out adapting the tunnel in future.

"We're more than ready to help when and if they need us," he told AUTOSPORT.

The high-profile USF1 project ultimately failed to get going © LAT

Some have suggested Ferrari is developing its car by the back door via Haas, which Steiner refutes: "We rent windtunnel time from Ferrari and it's our people who run the tests.

"We have no interest in developing Ferrari's car. That does not make us good, and does not help our project...

"We are working every second week, we do two shifts a day; every other week is Ferrari's. They are restricted [by regulations] to 30 hours per week. They are complying; they are using the maximum they are allowed by the FIA. I don't even know what they are doing."

Steiner adds that the team's 60 per cent model has been in the tunnel since December - "so we know what the car is going to look like" - but adds "our model doesn't stay at Ferrari. It's taken out, goes back to Dallara when it's not running in the tunnel."

Haas F1 recently acquired the ex-Marussia facility in Banbury as a European base, and in an unrelated deal purchased the troubled team's supercomputer for CFD purposes. The mainframe is a year old after the original machine, used by Nick Wirth to develop the CFD-only 2010 Marussia (then Virgin), suffered fire damage.

"The CFD department is based [in Kannapolis] even if the CFD supercomputer is in England, but the engineers are sitting here. At the moment we have four people. By the end of this year we'll have about 10 or 12, because they can work anywhere as long as they've got a connection to the supercomputer."

Although Haas F1 could theoretically run a test car until/if its 2016 entry is accepted by the FIA - usually November - the team has no such plans as "It would cost too much just to go testing, and then you would have an old car anyway. We'll start testing when testing opens in February next year or whenever, and do simulations before then."

Team boss Gene Haas is investing heavily in new F1 operation © LAT

For the first time since the project became public knowledge in January 2014, Steiner provides some history to the Ferrari relationship:

"[It] was agreed last year quite early, because they were part of the first plan before we were even granted the entrant licence in April 2014. The contract was signed sometime in the middle of last year. We discussed it before we applied for a licence because you can't go to the FIA and say, 'We have got a nice idea, but we do not know how we are going to do it.'

"Then they send you away. So we said 'Ferrari, if we get the licence, will you be a partner of us?' and they said, 'Yes, we will be'.

"We made the first approach [to ex-Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali, a personal friend of Steiner's] a few years back to see if our plan could work, because Gene never wanted to start from nothing like a lot of other people did." Marussia, Caterham and HRT, plus USF1 - stillborn up the road - spring immediately to mind...

Does it not, though, perturb Steiner that virtually every Ferrari individual they negotiated with - from former president Luca Montezemolo through Domenicali and his replacement Marco Mattiacci to engine and chassis technical directors - have all since left its employ?

"[The fact that so many people left] doesn't really complicate matters, because they all didn't go at once. When [technical director] James Allison came in he was immediately part of the negotiating team, then Mattia Binotto, the engine guy. He's a good friend as well, a personal friend whom I've known since Red Bull Racing, where we used Ferrari engines. He's a good point of contact for this programme."

US base is impressive but Haas is outsourcing work to Italy and Britain as well © LAT

Steiner has yet to hold formal meetings with current Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene, but is confident of the backing of the Italian charged with turning around the Scuderia's fortunes.

"The programme was set up professionally from the beginning; it was always above board. Luca di Montezemolo, then Mattiacci came, he saw this as a good thing. It helps everybody, helps Formula 1 as well to get an American team. Now Maurizio, he's on board, and he said, 'You have got the support of us here, not just of me but of all of us, so just keep on doing what you're doing'."

One of the burning questions is that of drivers, particularly with F1's current push for both US and female drivers (preferably all in one helmet...) and with IndyCar turned NASCAR star Danica Patrick being a SHR driver. (The other member of SHR's NASCAR racing quartet is its part-owner Tony Stewart, who has no involvement in the F1 operation).

Where does Haas F1 stand on drivers, and Patrick in particular?

He does not foresee IndyCar winner and Indianapolis 500 podium finisher Patrick (33) switching to a new single-seater discipline given her commitment to NASCAR, but admits that she follows the project keenly.

"Our plan is to have something cleared in August/September, then announce them later. It's getting clearer, and a lot of people are getting into contact with us now. We are in no hurry, because we have to see who is on the market and who is doing good, who wants to move. And drivers want to see who we are actually, and now they can see and touch us," is Steiner's part answer.

Steiner is keeping F1 expectations in check despite the team's NASCAR pedigree

"We are looking at American drivers, but being American doesn't give you an automatic drive. If you are good, it's fine, because otherwise if you just pick an American because he's American and you're not successful, it's not good for the driver to start off with, it's not good for the team, and it's not good for the programme in general, and the country."

Ask Steiner about (Ferrari tester and former Ferrari-powered Sauber racer) Esteban Gutierrez and of American interest due to his Mexican roots, and the son of an Italian butcher who is now a naturalised American simply smiles: "I talk to everybody who could be available... and you know who they are..."

Finally, what are the team's first-year objectives? "To be respectable. Qualifying lower to mid-grid...12th, 14th, something like this, and knocking on the door of points initially. Then who knows?

"We want to score as many points as possible next year. I can give you one stupid answer, I've got the freedom of one stupid answer without facts!" he says with a slow smile.

Then Steiner goes all serious: "We'll review those objectives every year..."

*LISTED PARTS

Monocoque

Survival cell as defined in Article 1.14 of the F1 Technical Regulations

Front impact structures used to meet the requirements of Articles 16.2 and 16.3 of the F1 Technical Regulations

Roll over structures - roll structures as regulated by Article 15.2 of the F1 Technical Regulations

Bodywork as defined in Article 1.4 of the F1Technical Regulations and regulated by Article 3 of the F1 Technical Regulations with the exception of airboxes, engine exhausts and any prescribed bodywork geometries

Wings

Floor

Diffuser