Haas F1 Team have already caused a lot of outrage in the the F1 community by signing a wildly unpopular driver, but their fortunes have taken a further dip.
Written By Ian Bruce, Edited By Issa Chaker
As so much has stayed the same from 2020 to 2021, Haas have decided to build their updated car at their Banbury base in the UK instead of their factory in Italy. This has caused little issue thus far, but one major problem has arisen, they cannot fit or fire up the new Ferrari engine.
The reason for this is simple, COVID. Due to the strict quarantine restrictions laid down by the UK government, anyone from Italy (that isn’t an athlete) has to quarantine for 14 days on arrival. This means it would be pointless for the Ferrari engineers to come to the UK, as they would not be able to make the onward journey to Bahrain for testing.
Even Guenther Steiner has been delayed by these restrictions, having to oversee operations from the US.
The problem this gives Haas is that they will not be able to fire up their new engines until the testing in Bahrain. A headache that Haas simply does not need after another dire campaign in 2020.
Haas are another team that have decided not to make sweeping changes to their 2021 challenger. Instead, they have isolated the areas that caused issues and have been able to fix them, without using development tokens.
2021 will be a very interesting year for Haas. With a rookie lineup and a Ferrari engine that might still be a problem, I foresee another season fighting at the back. I hope I am proven wrong.