F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Whiting has 'no concerns' about Haas/Ferrari tie-up

FIA race director Charlie Whiting says that he doesn't have any current concerns about the legality of Haas F1's new 2018 car.

The VF-18 has come under attack in recent weeks after making a better than expected début in pre-season testing in Barcelona.

The car then went on to perform strongly in qualifying for the season opener in Melbourne. Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean lined up for the race in fifth and sixth place the grid respectively.

Both cars ran ahead of Red Bull in the opening laps of the Australian Grand Prix. They were still in the top ten when problems attaching new tyres during pit stops forced them out of the race.

However, their pace had been enough to draw attacks from rival teams, who accused Haas of exploiting their technical alliance with Ferrari.

The comments have been dismissed by Haas team boss Guenther Steiner. And now Whiting has also made it clear that he gives the rumours short shrift.

Steiner and Haas drivers respond to 'Ferrari clone' jibe

"We know exactly what’s going on between Haas and Ferrari," Whiting was quoted as saying by wtf1.com this week. "[It] is completely legal.

"Last year we had one team expressing some concerns. But we have not seen anything that concerns us at the moment."

However that has done little to assuage some of Haas' rivals in the F1 paddock.

"I don’t know how it can be right for a team who has been in the sport for a couple of years with no resources to produce a car like this," Force India’s chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer said.

Teams can set up alliances to share some areas of technology, but aerodynamic elements have to be their own.

Szafnauer says he doesn't understand how Haas have managed to make such big advances in this area over the winter.

“Red Bull have over 800 people," argued Szafnauer. "A wonderful wind tunnel. A great aerodynamicists. One of the best technical directors who is a top aerodynamicist.

"Haas has a quarter of the people. No big aerodynamicists, no wind tunnel, no Adrian Newey. But they are faster. How does that happen?"

"Does it happen by magic? If it does I want the wand!"

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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.