Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsHaas F1 Team

Haas not searching for reserve driver

Haas is unlikely to add a reserve driver to its line-up in the near future, according to team principal Guenther Steiner.

Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez have been named as Haas' driver line-up for its maiden F1 season next year, with the pair bringing recent experience to the new team. Steiner told GPUpdate the addition of a reserve driver could detract from the crucial work the team will have to do in pre-season ahead of its debut in Melbourne

Asked it there are plans to bring in a reserve driver, Steiner replied: "No, not yet.

"We left that a little bit alone for the moment. Maybe we will do something in the future, and I say maybe, but for the near future we are not going to do a lot with reserve drivers and development drivers.

"We have got a steep mountain to climb, so we don't want to distract ourselves. A lot of people did that with [links to] a GP2 team, GP3 team – we are not doing any of that."

Haas will have just eight days of pre-season testing during which to prepare for its first F1 race after the number of tests was reduced from three to two for 2016.

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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.