Haas wraps up 'challenging' debut season

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The Haas F1 Team will see the curtain fall in Abu Dhabi on its maiden Formula 1 season, with team boss Guenther Steiner labeling the year "a very challenging mission."

Haas kicked-off its 2016 campaign with three remarkable finished in the points in the first four races, but the huge challenges associated with running a Formula 1 effort progressively caught up with the US outfit.

For Steiner, the journey this year has been as important as the destination.

"We’ve been building up this team for more than two years, almost three years," said Steiner.

"So it has been a very exciting and a very challenging mission. I call this year our first season because we showed what we can do, but we worked on it for three years.

"It has gone so quickly that it’s been incredible. To have the opportunity to start an F1 team – how many people can do that? So for me on a personal level, it was really something.

"If you’re a kid, you dream of things like this, and we got it done. It wasn’t me on my own. It was a lot of people working with me. How you define success is very difficult, but getting here has been fantastic."

At the end of the day, despite a big slump in Haas' performance over the summer, Steiner believes the team's overall results - with 29 points scored so far in Constructors' championship - are a reflection of its true merits.

"For sure if you wish something you believe in it, but would I have signed up for eighth? Absolutely. That is what we were going for and we had a good feeling we could achieve it, but nothing is for certain in F1.

"You need to go out and compete and it seemed to be that eighth was very secure after the first three or four races, but then in the middle of the season somebody could have done a better job than us because we lacked a little in performance. So yes, eighth is what we deserve."

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Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.