Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsHaas F1 Team

Haas: Gutierrez helps with ‘sound business model’

Gene Haas says having Esteban Gutierrez as one of Haas F1’s drivers in 2016 is part of “a very sound business model” for the team.

Haas confirmed on Saturday in Austin that the team would name its second driver alongside Romain Grosjean at next weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, with Gutierrez to be unveiled at his home race. When asked by F1i about the plan for the announcement, Haas replied: “Mexico City on Friday night we will announce our driver.

“He’s a Ferrari reserve driver, maybe you can connect the dots!”

With Ferrari selecting Gutierrez for the seat as part of its technical partnership with the Haas F1 Team, Haas says having a North American driver is also beneficial.

“It’s all going to be very important, it all kind of connects together in terms of not only the drivers but sponsorships. It’s a very sound business model, so ultimately when we start racing next year we want to have business partners to be part of our team.”

However, Haas says it will be Grosjean who is going to be the team’s lead driver heading in to its debut season.

“Yes, exactly. He’s going to be our senior driver, we’re going to depend upon his experience to help us set-up the cars, to explain the tracks to us, help with strategy … I think that’s all really critical because you can’t really do that without experience.”

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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.