Gene Haas has 'no regrets' over setting up American Formula 1 team

Gene Haas insists he has "no regrets so far" on entering Formula 1 despite the logistical headache in starting up a new American team.

Haas has turned to Ferrari to provide a considerable number of parts to build his two cars but that does not mean the project, the headquarters of which is based in the United States, is without its difficulties.

He is convinced come the start of next season and his team's debut, it will not simply be making up the numbers.

"Our biggest hope is to show up at the show and run reliably," said Haas, in conversation with AUTOSPORT.

"That's the number one goal, to be able to get the personnel to the race venues, to get the pit equipment to show up at the same time, and get our personnel in hotels.

"There are a lot of logistics that go on in there, and that all has to happen before you can actually run a race car.

"But there are no regrets so far, with another of our goals to actually show you can survive in F1 without the drama some of the other teams go through.

"From everything I've seen, we're going to be fine. We're not going to wind up going to the poor house."

Haas said the design and build of the car is on schedule, adding: "We know by sometime in August/September you have to have all the data.

"First of all you have to get the data from Ferrari and what they're doing with their engines because you build your car around it, so all that data needs to be hard copied on paper and then we can start building our chassis.

"Right now we're running some of our ideas in the wind tunnel and we have CFD, simulations and we're learning, one step at a time.

"Once we get the final hard data, say like, where Ferrari suspension parts are going, that's when we can finalise our design."

The tie-up with Ferrari is saving Haas considerable time, money and effort, and the fact the Scuderia's car is again proving strong on track is a considerable boost.

"I'm absolutely delighted they are challenging again," said Haas, one half of the successful NASCAR partnership with Tony Stewart.

"But in this business it's always cat and mouse, and one is always ahead of the other. We know Ferrari is not going to be behind forever.

"From our perspective, obviously we're going to use their engines and transmissions.

"We have the FIA list of what we can purchase from them, with our aim to purchase as much as we can from Ferrari to build our car.

"We have some other suppliers who are going to help us with parts that we have to produce ourselves. If there's stuff we can engineer ourselves then we'll do it."