Haas responds to suggestion of selling F1 team

Haas team owner Gene Haas has clarified that he is not interested in selling his Formula 1 team to an interested buyer.

Earlier this week, the Kannapolis-based outfit confirmed that Guenther Steiner would not return to the squad for the new season.

Steiner held the Team Principal role since the team's inception but has now been replaced by Ayao Komatsu.

Haas has endured poor results over the last number of years, finishing bottom of the Constructors' Championship twice in the previous three seasons.

Following the news of Steiner's departure, Haas has reaffirmed his commitment to F1 amid suggestions that he could place the team up for sale and exit the sport.

“I didn’t get into F1 to sell [the team],” Gene Haas told Formula1.com. “I did it because I wanted to race. Guenther had the same perspective.

“We’re not here to cash out, we want to race and be competitive. If you look at any team, historically, they have had a lot of good years and a lot of bad years.

“Surviving is one of the characteristics of getting better. As long as you can survive, you always have another year to prove your worthiness.

“This is a big change. Losing Guenther is going to cause the team to have to focus on other aspects. We will hopefully come out better for it.”

Improving spending effectiveness

Since the injection of investment from MoneyGram, Haas has been able to spend close to the sport's strictly enforced budget cap.

Haas acknowledged that it must improve the effectiveness of its expenditure having been rooted to the rear of the field in recent years.

“There is a perception we spend a lot less money; we’re usually within $10m of the budget limit,” he said.

“I just think we don’t do a very good job of spending that money. A lot of teams have had previous investments in their infrastructure, buildings, equipment and personnel.

“Our model was to outsource a lot of that. We spend a lot of money. We haven’t exceeded the cap but we’re pretty darn close to it.

“I just don’t think we’re doing a very good job of spending it in the most effective way.”