Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsHaas F1 Team

Haas close to finalising 2016 driver line-up

The new Haas F1 Team is closing in on its 2016 driver line-up, with the pairing set to be finalised within the next three weeks.

With Kimi Raikkonen staying at Ferrari, the driver market has been stable with former Haas target Nico Hulkenberg remaining at Force India and Valtteri Bottas confirmed alongside Felipe Massa in an unchanged line-up at Williams.

While Hulkenberg was in talks with Haas, team owner Gene Haas confirmed to F1i at Monza he is only interested in drivers who are looking to leave "a sinking ship", citing the need for patience as the team finds its feet in F1 next season.

Haas insists the team is still on track to finalise the line-up by the end of September, with F1i understanding Ferrari has chosen Esteban Gutierrez over Jean-Eric Vergne for one of the race seats thanks to a technical partnership between the teams.

Romain Grosjean has been linked with a seat at Haas as uncertainty over Lotus' future continues, with a Renault takeover at Enstone still to be finalised. Kevin Magnussen is another who has been in talks, but Haas retains reservations over his ability to develop a car for a new team after just one year of F1 experience.

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2016 F1 driver line-ups so far

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.