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Haas F1 Team changes Friday driver policy for 2018

Published on 13 Mar 2018 08:39
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By: Rob Veenstra

Haas F1 Team says the door to Antonio Giovinazzi will remain basically closed in 2018. Since last July, the Ferrari junior driver replaced Kevin Magnussen on Friday morning at seven grand prix weekends.

Haas F1 boss Gunther Steiner said in December: "I cannot say how negative it was, but it was not positive." At the time, he would not say what exactly Haas' Friday driver policy would be for 2018.

Steiner now says: "There are no plans at this time. Maybe a one-off later in the season, but nothing like last year is planned," he told Ekstra Bladet newspaper. (GMM)

ENDR

Posts: 43

Thing is - in the last 20 years no Ferrari customer has really had a race winning car. Let's take a look: Spyker/Force India, Sauber, Marussia, Toro Rosso (not including the odd Monza 2008), Haas - they were always in the midfield (at best!) during their stints with Ferrari engines. And no, that ... [Read more]

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Mar 13 2018 - 18:14

F1 News Kevin Magnussen Antonio Giovinazzi Haas

Replies (5)

mbmwe36

Posts: 533
Smart decision, it didn't exactly work out well for them last year. It'll be interesting to see what they can to this year, if they've managed to solve the problem with the lack of heat in the tires.
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- Mar 13 2018 - 16:38
ajpennypacker

Posts: 2,475
Good for him. Ferrari is pushing quite hard to turn Haas into their 'Toro Rosso.' And I doubt there is a worst team to be a customer of based on pure stats. How many races have been won or podiums obtained by Ferrari customers in the last 20 years? Then think of how many customers of every other manufacturer (Mercedes, Renault, Mercedes) has won races, podiums and even championships. Glad that Gunther has the balls to stand up to Ferrari.
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- Mar 13 2018 - 17:07
- ENDR
  
  Posts: 43
  Thing is - in the last 20 years no Ferrari customer has really had a race winning car. Let's take a look: Spyker/Force India, Sauber, Marussia, Toro Rosso (not including the odd Monza 2008), Haas - they were always in the midfield (at best!) during their stints with Ferrari engines. And no, that wasn't due to being a Ferrari client. Their cars just weren't very good.
  
  Now, since their divorce with Williams Renault have only had race wins during their run as a works team and then as just a supplier for Red Bull. Then they got back to being a works team, but they inherited a dog of a car, which never really threatened RB (yet...?).
  
  Mercs' customer wins come in large part from being a supplier to McLaren, which were still ahead (for just 2 seasons though) after Merc had bought Brawn (which also ran with Merc engines). Then Merc got ahead and thus ended any wins for a Merc customer.
  
  So saying that being a Ferrari customer is absolutely awful and any team would be much better off with other supplier's engines is BS. Mercedes has had the best engine in F1 for years now, be it a V10, V8 or V6, so no wonder the wealthier/stronger teams use it.
  + 1
  
  Mar 13 2018 - 18:14
Filandro

Posts: 1
Ferrari tends to not supply engines to anyone they see as a potential threat.
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- Mar 13 2018 - 19:27
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Yeah, but could you see Haas ever becoming a legit threat to Ferrari.
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  Mar 13 2018 - 19:53