Gene Haas has stated that part of this effort is to move Haas Automation from being a machine tool builder to a "premium brand", with this being allied to the fact that most of its sales will come from overseas in the future.
Haas Automation Inc is based in Oxnard, California, but the Haas F1 Team is headquartered in Kannapolis, North Carolina, with this having been boosted by the purchase of a facility in the UK, at Banbury, Oxfordshire - a 3,655 square metre building that will serve as Haas F1 Team's European base, allowing for easier and quicker access to the team's overseas suppliers and streamlined logistics for when the team travels to Formula One venues in Europe.
Construction of the team's equipment, from transporters to the pit apparatus to garage set-up, is well underway and, upon completion, will be housed at Haas F1 Team's Banbury location.
Gene Haas has seemingly paralleled his F1 team's approach with that of his machine tool making operation. He previously said: "This is not going to be a European just-throw-money-at-things-and-let's-go-racing. This is going to be an American, well-run, efficient organisation."
Team principal Guenther Steiner said in the team's latest statement: "While there is still a lot of work to do, a lot has already been accomplished for Haas F1 Team to be competitive when we join the F1 grid in 2016.
"Our technical partnership with Ferrari has allowed us to develop our car and our people at an exceptional pace. The way we're going about our F1 team is new and different, but it's working. We're committed to our plan, we're committed to F1 and, most importantly, we're on schedule. This time next year, our cars will have already been tested and we'll be readying them for Melbourne."
This is not Gene Haas' first entre to motorsport. In addition to Haas F1 Team, his motorsports holdings include Stewart-Haas Racing and Windshear. Stewart-Haas Racing is co-owned by Gene Haas and Tony Stewart. The organisation won the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship in 2014, with driver Kevin Harvick, to earn the team's second championship in four years. Driver-owner Stewart won the team's first Sprint Cup title in 2011.
Stewart-Haas Racing fields four entries – the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet for Stewart, the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet for Danica Patrick, the No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John's Chevrolet for Harvick and the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet for Kurt Busch. The team operates out of an 18,581 square-metre facility in Kannapolis, North Carolina, with approximately 280 employees.
Windshear is a 180 mph rolling-road wind tunnel in Concord, North Carolina, that is the first of its kind in North America. Founded by Gene Haas, it is only the third rolling-road wind tunnel of its scale in existence, and the world's first commercially available, full-scale, rolling-road wind tunnel. Windshear is available for hire to all motorsports teams and auto manufacturers. NASCAR, INDYCAR, sports car and NHRA teams utilise Windshear, as does the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR), which has conducted tests on production cars at the facility.
In addition to Haas F1 Team's Steiner, a Formula One veteran who was originally recruited by three-time Formula One champion Niki Lauda to join Jaguar in 2001 as the team's managing director, other key personnel have also been added, notably Dave O'Neill as team manager, Rob Taylor as chief designer and Ben Agathangelou as chief aerodynamicist.
O'Neill came to Haas F1 Team from Marussia F1 Team, joining what was originally Manor GP in 2009. O'Neill's task on joining Manor was to set up a Formula One team in six months. Recruitment of personnel, the purchase of equipment and infrastructure, oversight of car design and supplier selection were just a few of his many duties. He was the team manager for Jordan Grand Prix from 1998 through 2005 before joining A1GP, a racing series promoted as the "World Cup of Motorsport". As the chief technical coordinator for A1GP, O'Neill set up the series and track testing of cars. During this time, he also served in the role of team manager for A1GP's Team Ireland, winning the A1GP championship in the series' fourth season (2008-2009).
Taylor also joined Haas F1 Team from Marussia, where he held the post of deputy chief designer. Prior to Marussia, Taylor was the senior design team leader at McLaren from April 2006 through December 2010. Before McLaren, Taylor was head of vehicle design for Red Bull Racing, Toro Rosso and Jaguar beginning in 2002. Senior design roles at Arrows (1997-2002) and Scuderia Ferrari (1992-1997) were achieved after stints at Cosworth (1987-1989) and Benetton (1989-1992). Taylor's role with Haas F1 Team marks his 28th year in Formula One, a tenure that has provided a range of experience in all disciplines of Formula One design.
Agathangelou paired with Haas F1 Team from Scuderia Ferrari where he managed the upgrade of the team's wind tunnel and testing systems in Maranello, Italy, in March 2012. Prior to that, Agathangelou was with Dallara, serving as an engineering consultant for a number of projects the Italian race-car manufacturer had dating back to 2009, which included the technical lead for the Campos F1 project, 2012 technical upgrades for GP2 and the World Series Renault, design and development of the DW12 Indycar chassis, and management of the Alfa Romeo 4C "low cost" sports road car project. Agathangelou has a wealth of Formula One experience, for he was the head of aerodynamics for Jaguar and, later, Red Bull Racing from 2002 through 2007. He held the same role with Renault F1/Benetton from September 1999 to March 2002.
Agathangelou began his Formula One career with McLaren in 1994 as an aerodynamics analyst, moved to Tyrrell in August 1997 as senior aerodynamicist and then joined Honda Racing Development in April 1998 as chief aerodynamicist to prepare Honda's 2000 Formula One entry.
Agathangelou and Taylor have already designed the 60% scale model of the car Haas F1 Team will race in 2016. The duo has logged numerous hours in the wind tunnel it shares with Haas F1 Team technical partner Scuderia Ferrari. By working diligently to develop the scale model now, Haas F1 Team will be ready to go racing in 2016.
