Haas: First five years revolve around survival

Gene Haas is under no illusions about the task his Formula 1 team faces when it joins the grid, stating that he will be focused on "survival" over the first five seasons.

Haas F1 Team, based at the same Kannapolis complex as the established NASCAR outfit, is set to debut in 2016, with Ferrari supplying power units, gearboxes and general technical support.

"The first five years is about just surviving," Haas explained in an interview with CNN.

"I don't have any grander expectations that we are going to go there and win championships. If we can even win one race in five years that would be a tremendous success."

Of the three teams to enter Formula 1 during the latest expansion in 2010, only Marussia and Caterham are still competing, with HRT folding at the end of the 2012 season.

While the futures of Marussia and Caterham remain uncertain, Haas is confident of avoiding such financial problems when his team arrives.

"I think their biggest problem was trying to get to the grid so fast," explained Haas.

"For us we want to make sure that before the cars come for practice in January 2016, we will have that chassis hopefully completely assembled by November.

"We will spend a fair amount of time making sure we have the right spares, the right pit equipment, the right logistics, the right containers – all the right things that takes us to get to the race."