'All signs' point to Haas staying in F1

(GMM) “All the signs” point to Gene Haas signing up to the 2021-2025 Concorde Agreement.

That is the view of the small American team’s boss Gunther Steiner, having earlier admitted that owner Gene Haas is contemplating pulling the plug.

After Toto Wolff indicated that he is not ready to sign the new commercial agreement with Liberty and the FIA, F1 scrapped the earlier-reported August 12 signing deadline.

“We have received some final small legal comments that are being considered so the early sign-on deadline has been moved to August 18,” the sport confirmed in a statement.

That gives Steiner a few more days to convince owner Haas to make his call.

“I have to go through it one more time with Gene,” Steiner told Ekstra Bladet newspaper.

“I talked to him a little while ago and I will talk it through with him again in the next days. But now, all the signs are that we are ready for the signature,” he added.

“I have to make sure with the board and the owner that everything is understood and there is agreement on everything, but there are no signs that we will not sign.”

Steiner said that if Haas does sign up for 2021, the technical alliances with Ferrari and Dallara will also continue.

“At this point, it would be impossible for us to change supplier,” he said.

“An extension of the partnership with Ferrari goes hand in hand with the extension of the commercial agreement with FOM.”