Ex-F1 team owner Eddie Jordan has criticized American outfit Haas for what he perceives as a lack of ambition to win in Formula 1.
Haas joined the fray in 2016 as an independent team funded in large part by its eponymous founder Gene Haas.
The US outfit’s business model is distinctive within Formula 1 as it relies heavily on partnerships and collaboration with Ferrari and Dallara rather than solely on internal development.
Instead of manufacturing most components in-house, Haas has formed a close technical partnership with the Scuderia.
Such an approach allows the team to leverage the expertise, resources, and components of its partner, enabling it to focus more on chassis design and assembly, while production is outsourced to Dallara.
While Haas’ model emphasizes cost efficiency and strategic collaborations to compete in F1, many believe it has run its course as former team principal Guenther Steiner recently suggested.
“F1 changed from when Haas started to where it went in the past five years. It’s a completely different ball game,” argued Steiner who was instrumental in putting the team on its rails in 2016.
“You just need to open your eyes, if you understand F1, and look at what the other ones do – and Haas isn’t doing it.
“At some stage, you can’t get anywhere with [Haas’s] approach. It’s just not time-representative anymore.”
Beyond the merits of its model, and considering the team’s perennial stagnation at the lower end of the field, Eddie Jordan has cast doubt on Haas F1's commitment to competing at the sport's highest level.
The former Grand Prix entrant believes that Haas is weighed down by its owner’s lack of “aspiration” to win, suggesting that it might be content with simply participating in Formula 1 without actively chasing victories.
“If it was me, and I was there, I’d cast my attention to the engineering, the speed of the car, the ability to do the job,” Jordan told david Coulthard on the latter’s Formula for Success podcast.
“Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen in particular - I worked with him just after the Jordan era - are talented drivers who can do the job. No issue there.
“The issue is the commitment to the job in hand. They’ve been there for a long time, in Formula 1, and I haven’t seen the team move forward.
“Aspirations of winning a grand prix? I don’t see it.
“Whether it’s personnel or the second-hand Ferrari engine… But you’d rather have the Ferrari engine than the Renault engine in the Alpine, that’s for sure.
“A lot comes down to aero, and to Gene Haas putting the right guys in place. He hasn’t done that yet.
“The car in race trim seems okay. But in qualifying? They are given no chance. The car is just marginally better than the Alpine.”
Coulthard agreed that “there is definitely room for improvement.”
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