Gene Haas stresses importance of home race for US team

Next week, the Haas F1 Team heads to its home race, the most important event of the year for the US outfit, according to its eponymous founder Gene Haas.

A racer at heart, Haas earned his credentials in NASCAR in which the Stewart-Haas Racing team joined the elite in 2011.

But for the man who founded Haas Automation, the largest CNC machine tool builder in North America, motorsports isn't just a passion but a cornerstone of his company's growth.

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Formula 1 therefore isn't just about the challenge of competing, it's also about growing his company globally.

"Being a Formula 1 participant brings a level of credibility that you just won’t get through traditional advertising," Haas says in his team's US GP preview.

"People are kind of ‘show me’ people, like show me what you can do and then I’ll believe in you. It translates well into building machine tools where if we can race cars, we can build machine tools.

"That was the initial concept – to convince people of our ability to do things that others can’t, and I think that translates into being a machine tool builder.

"People see what we can do in Formula 1, and people believe Haas Automation can build world-class machine tools."

Haas has achieved a lot since the start of the 2016 season which saw an American F1 team line up on the grid for the first time in thirty years.

Haas returns to Austin a better and stronger outfit, and determined to put on a good performance in front of its enthusiastic home crowd.

"As an American team, having an F1 race on American soil is incredibly important," Haas says.

"When we arrived in Austin last year, I think we had proven that we could hold our own with the established teams of Formula 1.

"We had a very successful entrance into F1. We accomplished all of our major goals and, actually, surpassed what we expected at the beginning of the season.

"Now, we’re back with another year under our belts. We’ve been more consistent and we’ve scored more points.

"But we can still be better, and being able to showcase our growth and what we can accomplish on home soil is very gratifying."

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