Formula 1 preseason report No. 3: Haas F1

Mick is gone, Hulk is back and Maggie is ready to pick up where he left off

While the start of the Formula One season is still roughly a month away, we’re already in preseason mode here at AutoRacingDigest.com.

Over the next four weeks leading up to the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix (March 3-5), our exceptional F1 expert, Gregg Fielding, will break down each of the 10 teams that will take part in the global chase for the championship.

We began the series last week, starting from the bottom up (from last season's standings) with Williams Racing and then AlphaTauri. Today, we focus on the eighth-place finishing team, Haas F1. Enjoy!

Twelve months ago, Haas F1 was an organization mired in chaos. After going through the debacle of being sponsored by a largely non-existent company in Rich Energy in 2019, some wondered if the team would survive the challenges brought by the pandemic in 2020.

Haas responded by teaming up with Russian oligarch Dmitry Mazepin, who brought money from his Uralkali energy company, a driver in his son Daniil, and a Russian flag-adorned car, which raised a few eyebrows among prospective fans of what was supposed to be the American Formula 1 team.

It also brought a zero-point season, as the younger Mazepin was clearly in over his head, and while fellow rookie Mick Schumacher had the resume and pedigree to be a legitimate choice to move to the big leagues, the lack of an experienced driver and a still unproven car building unit led to a disastrous year for the Kannapolis, N.C.-based organization.

Whatever the plan was for 2022, world events would again rock the team, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February would mean the forced departure of the Mazepins and their money, leaving the team once again without a primary sponsor, and short one driver with the first race less than a month away.

Team boss Guenther Steiner quickly got on the phone with Kevin Magnussen, who had been dumped by the team after the 2020 season. Putting aside whatever bad feelings remained from the breakup, Magnussen jumped at the opportunity to return to the series, although not without managing to take advantage of the situation to snag a multi-year contract.

Magnussen showed he had no rust to shake off by finishing fifth in the season opener, a result that brought more than a few smiles to a team that had a best result of 12th the previous season. The optimism from the finish turned out to be a bit stronger than the reality, as they wouldn’t have a result that high the remainder of the season.

Still, Haas did manage to collect 37 points in total, good enough for eighth in the standings - their best since 2018. Magnussen was also able to grab the team’s first ever pole position in Brazil, albeit heavily assisted by some well-timed rainfall.

Now with the 2023 season approaching, avoiding being involved in world-shattering events would be considered a reasonable start for Gene Haas’ team. Schumacher is gone, and along with him sponsorship from German company 1&1, which had been closely linked to the driver.

The good news is financial services company MoneyGram will now be the title sponsor, and for a change the checks appear to be both valid and tied to the team, rather than a driver. Popular veteran Nico Hulkenberg returns to the series full-time to replace Schumacher, after having spent the past three years doing fill-in duty for Aston Martin.

Okay, so the team finally has stability (they hope) – now how about results?

It’s probably going to take some time. The team had abandoned its development efforts early back in 2021 to focus on last year’s car, which made sense considering the massive changes that were made in the regulations. But the results were mixed. Nudging out AlphaTauri for eighth in the standings was a nice boost, but the team was still way behind many of the other mid-field teams in performance. Only two of the team’s 37 points were scored in the second half of the 2022 season, as they once again made the decision early to focus on the future.

In addition to the quest for points, the team continues to search for an identity. Despite the growing popularity of Formula 1 in the U.S., the team never really grabbed on to being “America’s Team”, and the Mazepin debacle -- along with the lack of any interest in finding an American driver -- derailed any ambitions in that regard.

What they do have is unlikely social media star Gunther Steiner, whose personality shone in his many appearances in Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” series, and inspired a deluge of memes, especially regarding a certain picture with a boat.

They also have Hulkenberg, whose absence from the series really did make the fans’ hearts grow fonder, and if the driver who has the most F1 races ever without a podium can break that streak, we may see Hulkamania run wild in the grandstands.

The team would love to see their two popular drivers have Lando Norris-style media bromance rather than the cold war that once existed between Magnussen and former teammate Romain Grosjean, but the two have tangled as teammates before and competition to be the team’s No. 1 could lead to more hostility.

As for the identity issue, so far it looks to be status quo. Despite the now three events being held in the United States, and the looming possibility of another American team, Haas remains low-profile in its home country. While the two drivers have their fans, those diehards are mostly long-time Formula 1 enthusiasts who already have favorite teams.

Their new MoneyGram adorned livery is unlikely to be especially eye-catching to the crowds in Austin, Miami or Vegas. At least they still have Steiner, and when the story of last year’s season appears on Netflix in late February, we can be sure there will be plenty of quotable moments from the man from Merano.

2022 Results

Team finish: Eighth place in constructor standings, 37 points scored, 18 points behind seventh.

Driver Results:

* Kevin Magnussen: 13th Place in driver standings, 25 points scored, best finish – fifth (Bahrain)

* Mick Schumacher: 16th Place in driver standings, 12 points scored, best finish – sixth (Austria)

Predictions for 2023 –

The Haas team looked to be ahead of its timeline after a surprising debut in 2016, but following the success of that initial season the team went through a series of hurdles of almost unimaginable levels, which kept them from ever really moving in the right direction.

It looks like Haas is now past its travails, and hopefully with MoneyGram’s support it can spend up to the limits of the cost cap to start building a successful operation. But it’s not going to happen overnight, or even in a year or two. The team’s cars have always had moments of looking fast, but to achieve success they’ll need more than just being able to perform in perfect conditions.

The goal this year is “no disasters”, and just maybe a first-ever podium finish for Hulkenberg. The tea leaves (or perhaps coffee grounds) for the organization appear to show a repeat of an eighth-place finish for 2023, but perhaps better things to come in the future.