Haas can score on its F1 debut

It's easy to appreciate the aspirations of Haas Formula 1 team principal Gunther Steiner.

When asked recently about the team's goal when it makes its F1 debut in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 20, rather than erring on the side of caution, Steiner instead aimed high.

"We would like to make the points," said Steiner. "Qualifying, if we get to Q2 then you have a chance of points. That is our goal."

Naturally, Steiner's words are more of hope than actual expectation. But even declaring such an appetite perhaps places undue pressure on the team before a wheel has turned in anger.

After all, surely it is better to aim low and then overachieve, than to have lofty ambitions and fall short? When it comes to failure there is arguably no harsher sporting category than F1 to lay bare a team's shortcomings.

You only have to look through F1's history to understand just how difficult a task it is for a constructor to score a point on its debut.

Sauber is among the tiny group of F1 teams that scored points at the first attempt © LAT

Exclude the Indianapolis 500s that counted for F1 points and those teams whose bows were officially in the first world championship grand prix in 1950, and you are down to just 11 squads.

Given that Wolf, Red Bull Racing and Brawn GP had origins in Hesketh, Jaguar and Honda respectively, you could bring the list of debutant points-scoring teams down to just the eight that really did start from scratch.

That leaves just Ferrari (it did not enter the first race of 1950), BRM, Mercedes (the 1954 version, of course), March, Shadow, ATS, Sauber and Toyota, with the latter being the last to do so now 14 years ago.

It really is quite an elite bunch when you consider the number of constructors that have tried and failed to hit the ground running over the past six and a half decades.

For the last three to do so - Lotus Racing, Hispania Racing and Virgin Racing - the first race of 2010 in Bahrain highlighted the difficulties posed.

Only one of the six cars from those three teams was fortunate enough to see the chequered flag at Sakhir, albeit with Lotus's Heikki Kovalainen being two laps down.

The problems for the trio did not end there as HRT exited F1 after three seasons, and without a point to its name.

The teams that began life as Lotus and HRT struggled then folded © LAT

It was a similar story for Lotus. It managed five years, becoming Caterham along the way, before going to the wall at the end of 2014.

As for Virgin, later rebranded Marussia and then Manor, from its 111 grands prix over six seasons the team has just one points finish.

So in this often vicious F1 world, where it really is every team for itself and with the bottom line often being how much money a team can throw at its project, what chance is there of Steiner's hopes coming to fruition?

Well, for a start, there is a man at the helm in its eponymous owner Gene who at least understands motorsport, even if he is a novice when it comes to F1.

The 63-year-old Californian is no stranger to starting a race team from scratch, having done so with his own NASCAR outfit in 2002 ahead of entering the Sprint Cup series the following year.

It means he is fully aware of the pitfalls and dangers, even if NASCAR and F1 are virtually at opposite ends of the motorsport spectrum, but Haas at least has knowledge and experience, and so enters with his eyes wide open.

Serving Haas is a strong technical line-up spearheaded by team principal Gunther Steiner, the former Jaguar F1 technical director.

Former Red Bull and Jaguar chief designer Bob Taylor has been handed the same role with Haas, while Ben Agathangelou is chief aerodynamicist.

Haas's Stewart-Haas team took Kevin Harvick to the NASCAR Sprint Cup title in 2014 © LAT

Like Taylor, Agathangelou previously worked at Red Bull and Jaguar, as well as Renault, McLaren and Tyrrell.

These may not be star names, no Adrian Newey or Ross Brawn, but at least there is a proven pedigree, highlighting the fact Haas at least started off on a reliable personnel platform.

Of course, the biggest coup has been the tie-up with Ferrari, with Haas acquiring current power units from the Scuderia. By contrast, fellow Ferrari engine user Toro Rosso will run last season's system in the STR11.

Throw in a Ferrari gearbox and various other non-listed Scuderia parts, as Haas cleverly exploited the regulations to serve its purpose, and no wonder the tag of 'Ferrari B-team' has cruelly been mentioned on occasion.

It is a moniker rapidly dismissed by both Haas and Steiner, and they will more than likely have to continue doing so over the coming months.

But with so much Ferrari bolted into the car, all eyes will be on Haas during the eight test days looming at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.

The potential key to any success will be the integration between the components supplied by Ferrari and the chassis from another Italian manufacturer Dallara.

Grosjean brings experience to the team © XPB

To that end, Haas has already cleared one significant hurdle when it announced on January 8 its car had passed the mandatory FIA crash tests, so ensuring there are no last-minute headaches with regard to the chassis ahead of testing.

The fact Haas also delayed its entry by a year, as there was the option to compete last season after being given the green light to do so by the FIA in April 2014, has also worked in its favour.

Virgin, Lotus and HRT had just six months to get up and running, a fact critical to the struggles that followed for all three teams.

From concept to the car hitting the track in testing, the Haas will have been 22 months in the making.

Even Haas recently suggested he has had time to spare, such has been the lengthy period available prior to the team's now long-awaited first appearance.

And finally, we have the drivers, with Haas opting for experience rather than the paid-for route, although that is not disguising the fact Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez bring with them considerable sponsorship.

Both are well-versed in F1 - although in the case of Gutierrez he perhaps has more to prove after a year on the sidelines as Ferrari reserve after two tough seasons with Sauber in 2013 and '14 - while they are also young and hungry.

You mix together all the aforementioned ingredients, and perhaps Steiner's hopes of the team scoring points on debut are not such a pipe dream after all.