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Haas poised to stay in F1
Haas is poised to sign the Concorde Agreement by tomorrow’s deadline and will extend its partnership with Ferrari as a result, according to team principal Guenther Steiner.
Formula 1 has set the teams a deadline of August 12 to sign the new commercial agreements that bind the teams, F1 and the FIA together. The current Concorde expires at the end of this season, so committing to the new one suggests Haas will remain in the sport after uncertainty regarding its future, and Steiner said he expects to sign up after a final discussion with team owner Gene Haas.
“As ready as you can be (to sign),” Steiner said. “For sure I need to go through it once more with Gene. I spoke to Gene before, and I will call him in the next two days and talk it through once more, but at the moment all the signs are that we are ready to sign.
“I just want to talk it through as you do normally with the board and owner, you explain once more that everything is understood and everything is agreed. But there is no inclination that we are not going to sign.”
Steiner said by signing the new Concorde Agreement, Haas will also be expecting to extend its technical partnership with Ferrari, having worked closely with the Italian constructor since entering F1 in 2016.
“At this point it would be almost impossible for us and our resources to change to a new supplier so that goes hand-in-hand, if we sign the contract with FOM we will extend our collaboration and supply with Ferrari," he said.
Haas is not updating its car this year, the team looking to stabilize financially amid the impact of COVID-19, and Steiner said that approach won’t change even if the team confirms its immediate future in the sport.
“What we are trying to do is get the best out of what we’ve got, nothing else," he said. "If we can get through, then there will be better days ahead. But this season will be challenging, I said that from the beginning. It will be a challenging season after what we have learned after the first two races in Austria. We'll just keep on working hard."
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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