Latest F1 news in brief

Haas tries to defend Gunther Steiner who never once gave an American driver a look

Haas defends team boss after controversy
Bottas not targeting Alonso's 'triple crown'
New Force India 'similar' to 2017 car

Haas defends team boss after controversy
(GMM) Gene Haas has defended the boss of his F1 team following a recent controversy.

American drivers from other series hit out at Gunther Steiner after he said Haas does not have a US-born driver because there are none that are ready for F1.

"Complete BS," Indycar driver Graham Rahal said.

So as Haas revealed the first images of its Halo-adorned 2018 car on Wednesday, team owner Gene Haas said he understands why Steiner's comments caused a stir.

"Things kind of took off in a bunch of different directions as people made a bunch of assumptions," he said.

"The fact is that we're still learning here in formula one, and bringing on a driver who needs to learn about formula one probably isn't the best thing for us or them," said Haas.

Haas is entering its third F1 season with an unchanged lineup from last year — namely Frenchman Romain Grosjean alongside Dane Kevin Magnussen.

"Sure, there are competent American drivers who can compete in formula one," the American businessman admitted.

"But we're not ready for that yet, and with the limited amount of testing teams have, getting anyone up to speed who hasn't already been a part of a development program would be hard.

"I think that's the point Gunther was trying to make," Haas added.

Bottas not targeting Alonso's 'triple crown'

Valtteri Bottas knows his limits

(GMM) Valtteri Bottas says he has no plans to add the 'triple crown' target to his itinerary any time soon.

Fernando Alonso has made waves in recent years, after targeting the elusive goal of adding Indy 500 and Le Mans victories to his Monaco grand prix win.

He came close to Indy victory last year, and in 2018 will do the full WEC calendar as he tries Le Mans for the first time.

Asked if he has similar ambitions to Alonso, Mercedes driver Bottas said: "If he feels he has the time and energy for that, it's no issue.

"Maybe he likes to try new things because he's been in formula one for a long time," he told Ilta Sanomat newspaper.

"But at this point I don't think I would like to start mixing other series with the formula one season. I'd rather focus fully on formula one," Bottas added.

Indeed, the F1 calendar has already swelled to 21 races for 2018, and Liberty Media has talked about adding even more races in the near future.

"We have 21 races now but 25 is definitely the upper limit," Bottas said.

"It's going to be difficult on the logistics side to do that. There are the people to think about and costs will also get a lot higher if the teams have to get more people in."

New Force India 'similar' to 2017 car

The Haas looks like an evolution of last year's Ferrari to us. Did Ferrari just hand them last year's blueprints?

The new Haas looks like an evolution of last year's Ferrari to us. Did Ferrari just hand them last year's blueprints?

(GMM) 'Evolution not revolution' appears to be a catchcry as the F1 teams begin to reveal their 2018 cars.

Haas is first out of the gates this year with images of its new single seater, as boss Gunther Steiner said the biggest challenge was incorporating the mandatory Halo feature.

"The regulations are pretty stable so the VF-18 is an evolution from last year," he admitted.

"You see elements we had from last year on the car this year."

Force India is making similar noises, with technical boss Andy Green agreeing that the complexity of adding Halo to the package means teams need a stable base for the winter tests.

"The Halo means you need to make quite big changes," he told Auto Motor und Sport.

"So we will try to be in a similar condition that we had with our old car for the start of the testing," Green added.

"The (2018) car is a bit more elegant but visually very similar to last year. We want to go to Barcelona with a car that we know works. It should be a good foundation that we can then start to develop with quite big steps."

Without the luxury of evolution, however, is Toro Rosso, the small Red Bull-owned team that has suddenly become the Honda works team.

A new McLaren documentary, Grand Prix Driver, depicts how when the 2017 Honda was 'fired up' for the first time in the factory, it was far from a straightforward process.

So when asked if the Toro Rosso factory caught fire when the 2018 power unit barked into life for the first time, the team answered: "Our factory is perfectly fine — thanks for the concern."