Gene Haas: 'Pay driver business model doesn't make sense'

Team owner Gene Haas believes his team is better off steering clear of  a 'pay driver' model , at least for now.

The Haas F1 Team featured Esteban Gutierrez in its line-up during its maiden F1 season as the Mexican enjoyed lavish sponsorship from his backers.

Haas chose not to retain Gutierrez however, and hired Kevin Magnussen to race this year alongside Romain Grosjean.

The US outfit could have perhaps accommodated technical partner Ferrari by taking on one of its junior drivers for 2018 as the Scuderia seeks to promote Antonio Giovinazzi and Charles Leclerc.

Haas confirmed however both Grosjean and Magnussen for next year, although Gene Haas insisted he wasn't ruling out a return to a 'pay driver' scheme in the future. 

• No worthy bids from new teams to enter F1 - Todt

"No, I don't think we rule it out. But for a business model it doesn't really make a lot of sense," said the American.

"It's no secret that it costs $60m to put a car on the track for the season, and if someone - not just Ferrari - gives you a driver and they're going to pay you $5 or $6 million, there's a $55m deficit there.

"I think our point of view has always been that we need to score points and that's how we make money moving forward. So that's our business model," Haas added.

"I think Ferrari respects that. Based on that, if there's some mutual agreement we could come to, we probably would be more open to it," he said.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1

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