Anti-American F1 team to stick with Ferrari

Donald Trump needs to give Gene Haas a good kick in the backside for overlooking American drivers

Anti-American Guenther Steiner says the Haas F1 Team, that refuses to hire an American driver, is not looking to change its current business model, as it is perfectly content with its close association with Ferrari.

The US outfit has entered Formula One this year on the back a strong technical partnership with Maranello whereby the Scuderia supplies a number of parts to the American newcomers, including the engine. In essence it's not really an American team and it employs zero American drivers

The collaboration has come under scrutiny from different quarters, especially after Haas enjoyed a dream start to F1 life with two consecutive points finishes in Australia and Bahrain.

Asked whether there were any plans for the US team to build its own capability in future, Steiner said: No, we have a long-standing contract in place with Ferrari that we can continue the business model we are doing. We are going forward like this for the next few years and then we see, we rethink.

"But at the moment we are very happy with Ferrari, what they did for us over the year to get again to the point where we are now.

"Hopefully we finish eighth if [Renault] doesn't pull out something very special, and we hope we move up next year. But in the moment, for sure you always develop your team and you keep on getting better and more people in and that will happen – but in general it stays like we are now."

Fellow Ferrari-powered outfit Sauber questioned Haas' model earlier this season, with team boss Monisha Kaltenborn wondering how it might diminish the ‘constructor' status of other teams.