F1: Haas - Team has to prove worth for sponsors

Despite a better-than-expected season – and beating the demons that fell upon previous American entries in Formula 1 – Gene Haas says the team still needs to prove its worth in order to obtain significant sponsors.

"We've had more interest and we're talking to a number of companies but we haven't put anything in hard writing," Haas told ESPN about 2017 sponsorship opportunities. "I think we will have a couple of associate sponsors but I think we still have to prove we can race at this level."

The team ran a gray, black and red color scheme similar to the Haas Automation firm's products.

While Haas' NASCAR operation is undergoing massive changes – switching from Chevy to Ford, losing driver (and co-owner) Tony Stewart to retirement, adding an Xfinity Series entry in 2017 and signing a deal with Nike to outfit the team – Haas has maintained that the F1 operation was "not desperate to attract sponsors" and having the car branded under the Haas Automation name would be good for the product line. He cited declines in the television audience as one of the reasons preventing sponsors from making large investments.

"Racing in general, there's some viewership issues, there's only a number of viewers you can provide to potential sponsors," he said. "So in general I think all racing venues have had issues in terms of sponsors and most of the teams you see here don't have any major sponsors yet except from the top three or four teams."

Haas said he's felt "a fairly positive response to us," both from the NASCAR side and in F1.

"There's always been a lot of interest from the NASCAR side about F1, I think there's a lot of curiosity from people who would like to come to the races and find out what it's all about because it's interesting. I've seen a lot of interest from people, individuals, who have encouraged us in what we're doing.

"It's obviously on a very small level but we've got a lot media attention, a lot of business contacts, I think there's been a fairly positive response to us in Formula 1."

"We did what we said we were going to do which is worth a lot in this sport," he said. "Should we have performed better? Always. But in the end who would have thought we would finish eighth in the championship a year ago? Nobody would have believed it, and I would have signed up for it, by the way! So I am pretty happy with what we did."