Haas hopes new approach will lead to quick success

Having seen other new teams entering Formula One falter and fail, Haas F1 team owner Gene Haas says he believes he has the right new radical approach to make a success of his new venture sooner rather than later.

A billionaire through his machine tools business Haas Automation, Haas subsequently become a team co-owner of one of the most successful motorsports operations in US stock car racing. The lessons he's learned along the way have helped him shape a radical new strategy for launching a team in Formula One.

"Our whole direction now has gone quite a little bit different than I suppose say what the other teams are.

"You know, the other teams are looking at being a primary constructor and we're trying basically to use as much as we can from our partners.

"What tripped up the previous teams was they just didn't allow enough time to actually build their cars. So when they got on the grid, they were really, really behind.

"Not only are you trying to develop and design your car, but you're also trying to race. Trying doing those things simultaneously is probably impossible.

"So I think that's the main difference between us and other ones - and I think that's really going to be a big difference how we run our team."

He believes this flexible 'pick-and-mix approach' in partnership with Ferrari will allow his team to hit the ground running and be competitive much sooner than other new teams have been when they've entered the sport and immediately struggled to keep up with the more established teams.

However, he admitted that it had already been a steep learning curve since his tender to join Formula One was formally accepted in 2014.

"It's been a learning experience," he said. "It was a pretty risky move. We employed a lot or people here [in the team's main base in Kannapolis, North Carolina] at the construction facility.

"At the moment we're doing mainly CFD [Computational Fluid Dynamics] here so we have a handful of pretty high level engineers.

"We also employ people in the UK and also in Italy. Our initial expectation was to do everything out of Kannapolis initially but as time goes on it'll probably be a slower growth.

"As we learn more and more hopefully we'll bring more employment back here to Kannapolis - as I say, right now it's pretty high end engineer jobs and we're getting a lto of interesting CFD engineers from all over the United States so it's an exciting time."

Haas was asked what his personal qualities were that had made him successful first as a businessman and then as a co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing - one of the leading teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series - and which might now transfer across to Formula One.

"If anything the main ingredient is just stubbornness - not giving up, keeping your head pointing forward and just taking your licks as you go.

"NASCAR was certainly difficult, we spent five or six years in NASCAR and we were always at the back and it was a pretty gruelling, tough experience [before linking up with three-time Cup champion Tony Stewart] - I can sympathise with a lot of the guys that run at the back and how hard that is.

"In the first season [with Stewart] we started winning races and that was a real eye-opener. It takes the right people to make things happen - the same thing with Formula One.

"When we first started out [with the Formula One bid], initially Guenther [Steiner, team principal] took me to Austin and I met to Bernie Ecclestone and that was a real eyeopener, because here is the godfather of Formula One and you get to meet him.

"He's a pretty coy person, it's kind of like he wants to dissuade you from wanting to start this business because he's seen so many people attempt it and fail. But like anything else we kept banging away at it I think it was a couple of years later he said if you're really serious about this we'll make a tender for you - you know, had to open it up to to various teams.

"For the whole process, it really comes down to selecting the right people, taking your time, trying to analyse things, then adapting to what you learn. What we originally started with two years ago has really changed quite a bit."

Grosjean confirmed as Haas F1's first driver

Chris Medland's Japanese Grand Prix review

"I'm joking. You can laugh as well" - Rosberg and Vettel's awkward exchange

Click here for the F1 drivers' girlfriends gallery

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter