In both performance and popularity, Haas are back

Finley Crebolder
Kevin Magnussen leading Lewis Hamilton. Saudi Arabia March 2022

Kevin Magnussen leading Lewis Hamilton. Saudi Arabia March 2022

Everyone loves a good underdog story and with Haas on the way up again, Formula 1 has its best one back.

In 2016, when Romain Grosjean and his team wildly celebrated after securing a top-six finish in each of their first two races in the sport, it was difficult not to fall in love withHaas.

In an era when success was determined by financial muscle more than ever, here was a team punching above their weight, taking the fight to competitors with far more resources at their disposal than themselves.

That remained the case for the next few years, with Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen consistently finishing in the top 10 and the team so nearly finishing as ‘best of the rest’ in 2018, being beaten only by the three works teams and Red Bull.

They were the feelgood story of the sport, doing far better than a team of their size could reasonably be expected to and building a considerable fanbase as a result.

And then it all changed.

From the second half of the 2019 campaign, their form drastically dipped and that, along with the financial impacts of the global pandemic, forced Gene Haas and co to make some tough decisions that would hurt them in a number of ways.

In terms of performances, Haas became the backmarkers of the grid, opting not to develop their 2021 challenger in any way, focusing on 2022 and ending up with comfortably the slowest car on the grid as a result.

And as for their popularity, that disappeared with the signing of Nikita Mazepin, a pay driver who only ever made headlines for the wrong reasons.

The year that followed could not have gone much worse. Not a single point was scored and a huge number of fans had jumped ship.

At that point, it felt like Gene Haas would either pull out or sell up – most likely to Mazepin’s father – sooner rather than later, and that would be the end of Haas F1.

And then, once again, everything changed.

They may have spent more time working on their 2022 challenger than any other team, but few people expected them to get back to the top of the midfield even with all the regulation changes.

That is exactly what they have done though, scoring 12 points in the first two races, and that was with some bad luck. The fact Guenther Steiner andKevin Magnussensounded a little disappointed on the team radio after the Dane had crossed the line in P9 in Saudi Arabia says it all.

While it is early days, their time as the slowest team looks to be behind them and their decision to sacrifice the 2021 campaign looks to have been an excellent one.

Like Alfa Romeo, they have undoubtedly benefited from Ferrari’s steps forward in the engine department, but that takes nothing away from the team’s own work.

Despite having far less money and a smaller workforce than their rivals, they have managed to understand the new regulations better than many of them.

Another reason for their successful start to the year has been the signing of Magnussen, arguably the stand-out driver of the season so far.

Getting rid of Mazepin and his father in light of events in eastern Europe would not have been easy for Gene Haas given how much money it will have lost the team, but it was unquestionably the right one in many ways.

On track, they have a far better driver, one able to make the most of the improved machinery the team have produced.

Not only will K-Mag get better results than his predecessor and cost the team less in damages, but he will also surely makeMick Schumachera better driver, pushing the German far harder than Mazepin did.

The change in drivers is already reaping rewards away from racing too, with the team noticeably more popular again as a result of the switch.

You need only to look at their social media channels for proof of that, with the follower counts rapidly rising and interactions being far more positive than last season.

Much like their online spaces, the garage too is clearly a happier place now – and that had looked to be the case even before the good results started coming in. With the rather brusque Mazepins gone, a weight seems to have been lifted.

偏离轨道,团队和每个人has gone through an immensely difficult few years to say the least, in which the bad days have comfortably outweighed the good.

虽然你很容易出错的事情gh, it feels like their worst ones are behind them and the Haas of old, the proverbial David of the grid swinging rocks at the Goliaths, is back.

They have survived and now, thanks to their perseverance and decision-making, they can thrive.

And F1 is all the better for it.

Haas

Related Articles