Posted on 21st January 2015
It has been announced this afternoon that the Haas Formula 1 team will use the former Marussia factory in Banbury as its European base for its grand prix entry in 2016.
With the American outfit pushing on with its plans to join the F1 grid next year, team chiefs have settled on the Banbury facility after concluding a deal with its former owner Andrei Cheglakov to buy it.
Haas hopes to begin preparing the facility once the assets of the Marussia team – which had been due to be auctioned this week and are still in the factory – are sold.
Although Haas intends much of the work on its new F1 challenger to be done at its high-tech facility in Charlotte, it has always intended to have a European base that can be used for preparing the cars during the campaign.
In an interview with Autosport last year, team owner Gene Haas said the following on the subject:-
'There will have to be some kind of European base at least for the cars to go to initially, because we’ve got to ship them out of either London or Germany.
'We’ll probably have to have something where we can at least work on the cars. Primarily everything is going to be made in North Carolina. The engines and stuff will go there, and the finished cars will then be shipped to some location [in Europe] for transport to the races, or the European races.
'Then when they’re done they’ll go back there for refurbishment, or whatever is required.'
Haas’s takeover of the Banbury facility has prompted speculation that it could even be looking to buy the actual Marussia entry, and start racing with the team’s old cars this season. But it is believed to be understood in the paddock that Haas has no intention of deviating from its original plan of starting racing from 2016, after agreeing a close technical partnership with Ferrari.
Many have argued that the cancellation of the Marussia auction this week is due to talks with a mysterious third party which is looking at buying the assets. One possibility that has been put forward is that it could be a Ferrari-backed project to create some form of junior team; but nothing has been confirmed at this stage.
Even though the auction of the former Marussia team has been postponed for now while they look to rescue themselves with either new owners or new investors; the fact that their factory has now been acquired by Haas legally, it will only make it harder for them to come back to racing at a level that they need to be. This is not necessarily Haas' fault as he obtained the factory using the correct legal channels, but it does put Marussia on the back foot if they reach a rescue deal soon.
But with the news that Haas has acquired and bought the former Marussia factory to me seems that he is fully understands where the sport is based, even though the team will be primarily based in America and understands the level of commitment needed to make this successful.
From doing this, Haas will also be able to focus on getting the cars ready to race in the season at a cost that would be much more if the cars were to be sent back to the factory in North Carolina. This will only help the Haas team establish themselves in the sport, have an easy base to transport everything they need to take to a race weekend or test session and also not cut off from the heartland of Formula One where most decisions are made.
In my opinion, Haas has made the correct decision to have an European base for his team when they start racing in 2016 and I think they will feel the benefit of this, even if they will be making most of the decisions back in America where they are based. But the option in the near future is now available to Haas if he wanted to move the team in the near future to Europe and if this venture is successful, he might just do that, but only time will tell if that is the case.
Sarah Jones
