Haas isn’t exactly mourning the loss of all four Formula 1 races in the Americas this season.
Last week it was confirmed the Canadian, US, Mexico and Brazilian Grand Prix’s were all cancelled due to the fluid nature of the Covid-19 pandemic, with new rounds at the Nurburgring, Portimao and Imola taking their spot.
Typically, the loss of particularly the Austin race would be bad news, given the loss of exposure to the American market and of course it being Haas’ home race.
But on this occasion, for team boss Guenther Steiner, the positives of cancelling outweigh those negatives.
“First of all the disappointment not to make the flyaways is not high, because of the financials,” he said. “If they don’t support us there’s no point to go there.
“If we just lose money, there’s no point to fly a long way away to lose money, and the safety of all the people is the most important thing here anyway. So that one we can live with.”
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As for Haas owner Gene Haas, Steiner says he also understands F1’s decision to cancel.
“He knows that it’s done for a good reason, why we cannot go there, and nobody can change it,” he claimed.
“We are all a little bit disappointed that we haven’t got the full calendar and the full revenue from the race events.
“But the pandemic came, we didn’t allow it to happen, it happened without asking us, so we just need to deal with it.”
Even before most of the world had heard of the word coronavirus, Haas’ future in F1 was uncertain after a year of poor results and questions over whether there was the desire to continue in 2021.
Due to the budget cap and other changes, that uncertainty appears to have passed, but the Anglo-American squad is still having to watch the pennies as the sport tries to sure up the final calendar for this year.
“It’s getting closer that we have the information about how many the number of races will be, but as you know it’s always too little,” Steiner said.
“We still need to be very careful with what we are doing, and be very diligent how we are spending our money so we can get to the end with it.”
