Haas says NASCAR is a dictatorship compared to F1

Gene Haas

62-year-old Gene Haas, who now owns a team in both NASCAR and F1, says the FIA is a lot more democratic in how it functions than NASCAR.

"NASCAR is more like a dictatorship," Haas told AutoWeek. "They basically say, 'This is what we’re going to do,' and while they listen to your input, they ultimately make all the decisions. In Formula One, they have these strategy sessions where anyone can throw out any idea you want and then they vote on it.

"That's fundamentally different than NASCAR."

"There's a lot of drama in F1," he said. "Let me tell you, last year, they thought three teams were going to drop out, but the reality is that only Caterham dropped out. So there's always this thing where two or three teams say they are going to drop out but they always seem to show up the next year.

"They always seem to be racing."

Haas also believes F1 is more transparent than NASCAR due to the amount of public conversation generated in the paddock.

"They have these strategy meetings and they throw out all these outrageous things in those meetings, and the media immediately picks them up as fact," Haas said. "These are just ideas people tossed out there. Whether it will or won't make it to the next level is very remote.

"But there's certainly a lot of drama in Formula One. I think there's more drama in Formula One than there is in NASCAR. But still, it's Formula One. It's the ultimate motorsport." Matt Weaver/AutoWeek