Haas: F1 budget similar to NASCAR commitment

Gene Haas announces that his eponymous Formula One squad will have around the same $100-110 million (£65-70 million) budget as his renowned NASCAR team.

Joining the F1 fray in 2016, the US tycoon will rely heavily on a strong technical partnership with Ferrari and has recently confirmed Lotus multiple podium finisher Romain Grosjean as his lead driver for next year.

Having taken a different approach than previous newcomers HRT, Caterham and Virgin, Haas is confident that the moderate funds allocated to his F1 programme – only Manor Marussia has a smaller budget in 2015 – will nonetheless be sufficient to hit the ground running.

“For the first year we have planned a budget of $100 to 110 million,” he told Italian publication Autosprint.

“Somehow, the numbers are quite similar to our NASCAR commitment, though we are talking about only two cars. At full capacity, we’ll have around 200 people, which is nearly half of what teams like Williams or Force India have.

“Our construction activities for the car will be very limited, at least compared to the other squads. This is why we can have a significantly reduced structure.”

Haas also reveals that most of his F1 staff and logistics will be based in Marussia’s former factory at Banbury, in the UK, with a small group of engineers working from the team’s headquarters in Kannapolis, North Carolina and a second one overseeing the design and assembly of the cars in Italy.

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