Haas F1 owner, Gene Haas believes retaining current drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen is “a given” for 2018, despite speculation linking Ferrari third driver Antonio Giovinazzi to a seat.
The driver market for next season is already becoming a hot topic with a number of significant drives potentially set to change, but the American team appear certain they will not be a part of it as they look to build on their first two years on the grid.
“We will run with the same drivers that we have this year again next year. That is a given,” Haas told the official F1 website on Friday.
“And next year, without a big car or engine change, and with the drivers the same, that should give us a nice continuity boost.”
Should that prove to be accurate then Grosjean, who has said he has aspirations of replacing Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari, would be staying for a third year, having joined when the team did in 2016. Kevin Magnussen will also stay with the same team for a second year for the first time in his career in this scenario, having only driven a single year with former teams McLaren and Renault.
It would also mean former GP2 runner-up Giovinazzi, who is currently associated with the Haas team as he completes seven Practice 1 outings with them during the remainder of this year, would have to look elsewhere for a race seat which he says is his goal for 2018.
“The target, of course, is to be there [in a race drive] next year,” said the Italian.
“To get into F1 is really hard, there are only 20 seats for the whole world, so it’s not like football.
“This is just my first season in Ferrari, they are really good and I trust them. They know what they can do for me.
“Now it’s time to focus on what they gave me for this year, seven FP1s, and then we’ll see what happens next year. Everything can happen. I hope I find a seat next year.”
Rating his chances of finding a full-time seat having made his debut at the beginning of the year with Sauber, replacing an injured Pascal Wehrlein, he admitted: “I think it’s too early to know, it’s still July.
“To be honest, I don’t want to focus too much on what I’m doing next year. Maybe in September, we will see what we do next year.”
Returning to Haas, however, and the team has already matched their total number of points from last year with 29 in the first 10 races in a highly competitive midfield.
Considering how they’ll perform over the remaining 10 Grands Prix, Gene Haas said: “My guess is that we will score at least another 29 points.”