Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsHaas F1 Team

Haas will score early in 2016 - Lowdon

©Jamey Price / James Moy Photography

Manor president Graeme Lowdon believes new F1 team Haas will score points early in its debut season next year.

Haas joins the grid in 2016 having had its entry confirmed two years earlier, with the FIA allowing the team to defer for a season in order to be as prepared as possible. Haas also entered in to a strong technical partnership with Ferrari - one which is set to see Esteban Gutierrez drive alongside Romain Grosjean for the team - and Lowdon believes the approach the new team has been able to take will ensure it is competitive from the start of its first season.

"It's a reflection of just how difficult this industry is that they've changed the way a new team can come in,” Lowdon told Sky Sports. “If you look back to 2009 when we came in, we were subject to all the regulations on the same day we entered and had something like seven months to be on the grid in Bahrain [in 2010] and there was no option at all to delay that in any way. If we roll the clock forward, of the 2009 teams we're the only ones that survived - and we've had some ups and downs.

"Haas have been allowed to defer their entry for a year, they've been able to take their time over it and, crucially, they're not subject at present to any of the regulations. So they can take technology from any partner they want, they can take aero, they can spend as much time as they want in the wind tunnel.

"So the ease at which you can come into Formula 1 has changed dramatically and some would argue that that's a sign that this is a pretty difficult sport to enter and it's been a lot easier to enter now.

"That's a good thing. It's a bad thing for us because we came through a different route, so in my view they're going to be points scoring pretty much straight away because that car is extremely well developed. You just buy in the technology - it's going to be a really good package."

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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.