28/03/2018
NEWS STORY
If pre-season testing suggested that Haas was about to make a major step forward, last weekend's performance in Melbourne confirmed it.
While the American outfit failed to get either car to the finish, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean both suffering wheelnut issues during their pit stops which subsequently led to their retirement, in qualifying the pair were best of the rest, leading the midfield as they locked-out the third row of the grid, albeit over a second off (fifth-placed) Daniel Ricciardo’s pace.
Though Ferrari supplies numerous components to the American team, not least its engine and gearbox, the steering, cockpit instrumentation and front suspension is also supplied by the Italian manufacturer which has also allowed (chassis builder) Dallara access to its windtunnel.
As the American team begins its third season in the sport, it is about to discover the harsh reality of F1, that while your rivals will gladly welcome you to the fold, should you be perceived as a threat, especially with the help of one of the grandee teams, there will be trouble.
While Red Bull's Christian Horner calls for a restriction on special qualifying engine modes, as used to great effect by Lewis Hamilton on Saturday, his contemporaries at McLaren and Force India are calling for an investigation into the relationship between Haas and Ferrari. They are of the opinion that other than the parts being supplied by the Italian manufacturer, vital data and even personnel are being made available to the American outfit.
I don't know how they do it, it's magic," said Force India chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer, who will raise the matter at next month's meeting of the Strategy Group.
"I don't know how it can be right that someone who's been in the sport for a couple of years with no resources could produce a car like this," he added, "does it happen by magic? If it does, I want the wand.
"All the aerodynamic surfaces have to be your own," he continued "If they're not, I don't know how you can tell unless you start investigating. Scrutineering only tells you that it fits within the boxes of the regulations.
"Is it yours or somebody else's? That's the real question. And I don't know the answer to that. Maybe it is their own, it's just suspect, how can you gain that knowledge without history and the right tools and people?"
"I don't have any evidence" Zak Brown told Motorsport.com, his driver, Fernando Alonso having described the Haas as a 2017 "Ferrari replica" at the weekend.
"We all know they have a very close alliance with Ferrari," he added, "I think we just need to make sure it's not too close. There could be some influence, there's certainly some parts of the car that look very similar to last year's car. But that's for the engineers and the FIA to look at more closely."
Charlie Whiting is adamant that he has no concern, the FIA's race director saying at the weekend: "We know exactly what's going on between Haas and Ferrari, which is completely legal.
"Last year we had one team expressing some concerns," he admitted, but we have not seen anything that concerns us at the moment."
At Haas, speaking at the weekend, team boss Guenther Steiner remained defiant insisting that his team is doing nothing wrong.
"They've got their own opinion," he said. "They don't have all the information, and making statements like this without the relevant information is a little bit of a case of before you speak, you should know what you talk about. They can have their opinion, everybody's free to have one. And I've got my opinion."
They see ghosts," he subsequently told BBC Sport. "They say: 'The car looks very similar to a Ferrari from last year.' So should we have copied their car, which is behind us, or should we go with a car that goes pretty quick? Give me an answer to that.
"We have got the same wheelbase as Ferrari," he added. "We have to because we have the same suspension... why would we do it different? It's logic. It cannot be last year's Ferrari because it has the same wheelbase as this year's Ferrari. If they have got a problem with that, I show them the way to the FIA. They can file a protest."
Indeed, the Italian suggests those complaining have their own agenda.
"If you have to justify your incompetence, attack is the best defence," he said. "If somebody has double the amount of money and is behind us, whoever owns the team should be asking, 'what are we doing here?' It's competition. Maybe next year we are last. When you speak, you need to have an argument you can back up, not just assumptions."