Why Haas is back to where it should be in F1's pecking order

“We are back now,” concluded Haas team principal Gunther Steiner after Formula 1’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, revelling in the fifth place that Kevin Magnussen had brought home. In that, Haas secured its best result since it bagged a 4-5 finish in the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix – picking up where it left off at the end of that season.

And he’s not wrong. After a steady period of growth in its initial three seasons in F1, Haas shuffled up from the eighth-place constructors’ standings finish it secured in its maiden year in 2016 to fifth overall by 2018. But as the American squad drew closer to the sun it, like Icarus, began to watch the wax wane on its wings and began to plummet to the deepest fathoms possible.

2019 had started brightly. Magnussen and Romain Grosjean looked good in testing with a car that appeared easy to handle, and Haas seemed set to stake its claim as the fourth-best team at the Albert Park season opener – qualifying sixth and seventh at the Melbourne venue. Then, poetically, the wheels came off Grosjean’s charge. Magnussen rescued a sixth-place finish, but a repeat of the pitstop woes that claimed both Haas cars at the same track a season prior left Grosjean momentarily piloting a tricycle before his retirement.

Unlike the season before, Haas struggled to recover as the development battle heated up that year. The VF-19, it seemed, couldn’t be improved; no matter what updates Haas threw at it, none of the aerodynamic transplants took to the car and instead threw the team for a loop. The car could be hustled in qualifying, sure, but slid down the order in races as the drivers struggled to keep the tyres in Pirelli’s optimal working range.

Haas even took to running back-to-back experiments in races, running Grosjean’s car at Silverstone in the dialled-back Melbourne specification to understand the gamut of updates on Magnussen’s car. It was an experiment that landed in abject failure, as the two drivers collided early and retired before reaching the 10th lap.

The early momentum of Haas' arrival in F1 disappear during 2019

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

It also had off-track controversies pecking away at the team’s psyche, as title sponsor Rich Energy defaulted on payments and embarked on a social media warpath that took Haas’ reputation as collateral. Lady Luck, it seemed, had been turning a blind eye for some time.

It’s never been made clear what Haas had actually surmised from the year with the VF-19. Given the struggles through the year, 28 points probably wasn’t a terrible return, but against the 93 it managed in the previous year it was a stark regression in fortunes. And 2020 was even worse; having to run a neutered Ferrari powertrain owing to the Italian marque’s ‘agreement’ with the FIA, believed to be a case of bypassing the fuel flow sensor to draw more power from the car, Haas had little in the grunt department.
The car itself received little attention, Steiner explaining that the COVID-19 pandemic had hit the team particularly hard. Even worse, Haas would have to run a derivative of the VF-20 again for 2021, owing to the carryover regulations enforced by the FIA to limit spending during the economic downturn produced by the global health crisis.

To balance the books in those trying times, both Grosjean and Magnussen were given marching orders – and they duly crossed the Atlantic to seek their fortune in other categories. Mick Schumacher was given his debut following his Formula 2 title, and Nikita Mazepin came armed with then-valuable roubles from his father Dmitry’s Uralkali firm.

It was hard to see, even with the investment from the Mazepins, how Haas could scale the void it had fallen into and become reunited with the midfield

And lo, it came to pass that the team unsurprisingly struggled to keep its head above water; 2021 was simply about survival. But Haas dug deep, produced its best Bear Grylls impression to make it through the year, with all its eggs firmly incubated in the 2022 basket. Rather than waste its precious coffers on trying to turn the VF-21 – which was essentially the VF-20 with a new floor for the new rules – Haas hoped that a new approach would return it to the realms it had begun its F1 journey within.

Now, Haas has its own “hub” based within the confines of Ferrari’s Maranello base. Led by Simone Resta, Ferrari’s former chief designer, the team in charge of penning the VF-22 is its own self-contained group. Having previously relied on engineers seconded from Dallara, that contingent has now shrunk and thus Ferrari has placed a greater quantity of its workforce on the Haas project as it cut its own numbers down to meet the cost-cap.

Two lean years amid the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic required a rebuild at Haas

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

"With the [additions to the] aero department, that's more than half of the team [that's new], over 100 people,” explained Steiner. “But the last year, I mean, can you imagine when they watched how we performed how depressed they got? But they kept on digging, you know, and they dig us out of a hole.”

It was more a gaping chasm than a hole. It was hard to see, even with the investment from the Mazepins, how Haas could scale the void it had fallen into and become reunited with the midfield. The cost cap would help, but questions remained over the driving staff and whether the team could continue to operate in such a piecemeal fashion – with departments strewn across the UK and Italy.

And, of course, Haas had another sponsorship saga to contend with. As Russia invaded Ukraine, Haas suddenly had to unhook itself from the Uralkali deal. On the surface, it seemed like a face-saving exercise; the completely uncoincidental likeness to the Russian flag adorning the VF-22 had to be stripped away from the car in testing along with the branding brought to the team by the Mazepins. Nikita was then chiselled out of the seat, Haas perfectly anticipating the sanctions to be placed on him and his father by the British government.

That only added further questions, however; was Gene Haas still willing to fund his eponymous team out of his own pocket, and who could the team land at such short notice?

The first query can be answered by the visible increase in value of a Formula 1 team, thanks to the championship’s boom in global appeal. Haas has received tentative offers from elsewhere to buy his team – including Michael Andretti, no less – but has not felt the need to sell. With the buy-in price to enter a team now valued at $200m, not even including the costs needed to set up a going concern, that’s given Haas considerable leverage. Through Haas Automation, Gene Haas has pledged to increase his funding across 2022, a boost for the team in the short-term.

Gene Haas remains fully committed to F1 despite axing substantial financial backing from the Mazepins

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Having spent a year racing with American titans Chip Ganassi in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Magnussen was expected to continue there for the opening two rounds before joining Peugeot’s upcoming Hypercar program. But the lure of F1 surprised even the Dane, who hadn’t realised how much he was willing to make a return. When Steiner came knocking, Magnussen was immediately seduced.

That said, it was a leap of faith. Haas had been plagued by reliability concerns at Barcelona and didn’t have a lot to show for a car that, while well-developed, was living purely on reputation and flashes of potential. But Magnussen trusted Haas, and the 2022 car has so far repaid that faith.

Steiner explained after Magnussen’s Bahrain heroics that trust was a significant driving force behind the Haas team. Even when times proved tough in the past three seasons, Haas trusted that it could recover, trusted in Ferrari to recoup performance, and trusted in the difficult decisions it had to make ahead of 2022.

Steiner was confident that Haas’ heroics under the Bahrain lights would not be a one-off. Instead, he feels there’s a lot more in the car to come from set-up work and from developments

“We did that in 2016 when we came to the first race,” he said. “I mean, everybody doubted us, and we got there and made the points. And then I know that this year, we had good people around us in the design office, and I trusted them to do the job. Simone and the whole team and everybody just [kept moving] along while these guys were out racing, fighting for 19th and 20th. And they delivered. I'm very happy with the team; I'm proud of the team.

“[Kevin] knew that he had a good car. We saw that [on Saturday]. But then you still need to deliver. The longest stint we did up to now was 18 laps in a row, so now to do 57 was quite an achievement. And he didn't put a foot wrong, Kevin, and the team didn't do anything wrong. Everything was well prepared. Also yesterday, the qualifying, you are fighting for a difficult position, but everybody did their job and the right decisions at the right time.”

Kevin Magnussen's unexpected return has galvanised Haas

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Steiner was also confident that Haas’ heroics under the Bahrain lights would not be a one-off. Instead, he feels there’s a lot more in the car to come from set-up work and from developments slated for later in the season. The group of seconded Ferrari engineers is brimming with plenty of top-end F1 experience, and is fully focused on working with Haas, giving the team the support network needed to ensure it doesn’t fall into the same traps that the 2019 car had laid out.

Magnussen, meanwhile, has revitalised his side of the garage after a year spent struggling to get Mazepin up to speed in F1. His presence will also give Schumacher a much-needed reference to work from, as the German effectively has a second rookie season to contend with owing to a much more competitive car. The VF-22 has a number of neat developments too, particularly with its detailed front wing endplates and Ferrari-like sidepod design that suggests great care has been taken to bring Haas back into the midfield.

So what’s next? While Magnussen could live on his experience with the Bahrain circuit, Jeddah will provide a very different challenge  as Schumacher already has a year’s worth of experience at the Saudi Arabian street venue. The latter was disappointed to just miss out on points after a solid opening race but, if the Haas scrubs up well, he might have the chance to finally break his duck if he keeps it out of the wall.

From there, Haas will have to keep on top of developments after two years of limiting its in-season work. The difficult part is still not over, and for the American squad, the next few races will be spent hoping to quietly consolidate the early-season performance it has unlocked. But the 10 points it has scored in Bahrain is more than the prior two-and-a-half years combined has yielded, so the team appears to be back on the right track. “After two years of shit, it's good,” said Steiner, typically.

But for his team, one hopes that his later proclamation can finally stand true.

“We're still here, and we are back now.”

What else can Haas achieve in 2022?

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images