Haas success good for F1 after Manor collapse

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner (pictured) says the successful start his team made to life in Formula 1 is a good thing for the sport.

The Haas model was criticized by some figures in F1 ahead of the team's debut last year, with the new outfit making use of a close technical partnership with Ferrari and delaying its entry by a year having been granted a spot on the grid as early as 2015 if desired. Making use of changes in regulations allowing it to purchase a large proportion of its parts, Haas hit the ground running with two top-six finishes in its first two races.

Haas has now become the youngest team on the grid by some distance following the collapse of Manor and Steiner believes the U.S.-based outfit's strong start is good news for F1 after the final of the three teams to enter the sport in 2010 folded.

"I think we have proven that doing it a different way works, even if in the beginning we were told it would not work," Steiner told RACER. "Sometimes you need to look outside of the box – as cliche as that sounds – because two or three years ago people were looking at our model and saying, 'That will never work,' but we looked it and thought doing the same as all the other new teams did hasn't worked, so why would we do it?

"I think we proved a point, not that we get anything for proving that point but at least it is good for Formula 1 and I think it appreciates what we did for the sport in general – not for us but for the sport – to show that it can be done. We still have to do it again this year and be competitive, but I think it was a good start."

And Steiner says the competitive first season for Haas – finishing eighth in the constructors' championship – has allowed the team to secure new partners ahead of the coming year.

"Some [new partners], but you always want more! At the moment we are pretty happy with what we've got and they will be shown at the launch. They are not huge partners, they are big companies but they are not huge on the car. When you start a relationship you need to start small normally, because if relationships start big they normally end small. It's better if they start small and end big, so that's what we're trying to do."