The team owner of the Haas F1 team, Gene Haas, admires the Mercedes team for its performance, but the American thinks that the dominance of the ‘Silberpfeile’ is also killing the sport.
Since 2014, when hybrid powertrains entered Formula 1, Mercedes has dominated the sport in an almost unprecedented way. The competition in the form of Renault, Ferrari and Honda has been biting their teeth on the Mercedes power unit for seven seasons.
The White Ferrari
The Haas F1 team made its Formula 1 debut in 2016 with a business model that relies mainly on maximizing their relationship with Ferrari. The American team’s cars have not been nicknamed ‘White Ferrari’ just like that in the past, as was the case in 2018.
Perhaps that close relationship with Ferrari, and the ailing performance of his own team in recent years, also contributed to Gene Haas’s view that Mercedes’ dominance is destroying everything that Formula 1 stands for as a sport.
“I think we did really well until 2019, we had enough horsepower and the cars were very competitive,” Haas told ‘RACER’. “But from then on it all turned to fuel-kilometer races where we had to ‘lift and coast’ a lot, so that really hurt us.”
Close cooperation with Ferrari sometimes also a disadvantage
“In 2019 we had a lot less horsepower than the Ferraris, and that hurt. We did really well in qualifying, but when the race came our horsepower was just gone.
“Then, when Ferrari had less horsepower in 2020, it was quite clear that all cars with Ferrari engines were short of horsepower compared to Mercedes, Honda and Renault.
“Our boat is attached to the Ferrari ship, so if they go slow we go even slower, I don’t think there is much you can do about that.”
Mercedes is too dominant and destroys the sport
“We have no control over the parts we get from Ferrari. We are confident that Ferrari can solve the problem, and not only Ferrari has this problem, but Honda and Renault too. Everyone falls short compared to the Mercedes engine. ”
“They have built an engine with extremely high performance, low fuel consumption and long life that no other team can come close to.”
“For me, it really ruined the things that F1 is all about. Mercedes may dominate much of the race, but who wants to go to a race when you know who’s going to win every race? That just gets boring. ”
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