Haas Automation owner Gene Haas unveils Formula One ambition

Already a key figure in America's NASCAR racing as co-owner of the Stewart-Haas Racing team, he has responded to a recent call for potential new teams to come forward. The new team, Haas Formula, has received a licence from the sport's governing body, the International Automobile Federation, or FIA, and Haas has until June to let FIA know whether it will run in 2015 or 2016. No figure has been put on the investment necessary, but Mr Haas (pictured) has been quoted as saying: "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." And that would be entirely in keeping with his company's approach to machine tool building. Other F1 teams might do well to recall that when he said that he would introduce a vertical machining centre for under $50,000 in the mid-80s the industry did not take him seriously. But he showed up at Chicago's IMTS exhibition in 1988 with just such a machine – the VF-1. Mr Haas, 61, founded Haas Automation in 1983, with the company having since become "the largest machine tool builder in the western world". With this latest initiative, he says he wants to move Haas Automation from being a machine tool builder to a "premium brand", this being allied to the fact that most of its sales will come from overseas in the future, he adds. The company's US-side success has been aided by its NASCAR efforts, Mr Haas offers, and the F1 relationship is linked by him to a doubling of sales – Haas Automation Inc currently has annual sales in excess of $1 billion. Mr Haas entered the NASCAR ranks in 2002, with this becoming a full-time operation the following year and subsequently expanded to two cars by 2007. Following the 2008 season, Haas CNC Racing became Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) after Gene Haas gave 50% of the team to Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart. In 2011, Stewart won SHR's first Cup title, and the Kannapolis, North Carolina-based organisation is expanding in 2014 to field entries for four drivers: Stewart; 2007 Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick; 2004 Cup champion Kurt Busch; and 2013 Daytona 500 pole winner Danica Patrick. Mr Haas is building a second race shop to house his Formula One team, adjacent to the Stewart-Haas Racing shop in Kannapolis, which is in the heart of NASCAR country, but Haas Formula is a separate entity from SHR. The new team has employed Guenther Steiner, who was involved with Red Bull Racing, as technical director and Jaguar prior to that. For Haas Formula's F1 ambitions, Dallara has been mentioned for the chassis, while Ferrari and Mercedes are realistic engine options. A key technical note is that Haas is currently the only NASCAR owner who boasts its own wind tunnel 'Wind Shear', which opened in 2008 – a useful facility in F1, too. View the full press conference here