Haas’s US team to be given green light into F1 by next year:
Bernie Ecclestone has revealed that a new team run by an American businessman is on track to join Formula One next year. It will become the sport’s 12th team and the first from America since the 1980s. Formula One has not had an American driver since 2007. The team is run by Gene Haas, the joint owner of the championship-winning Stewart-Haas Racing team [#4, #10, #14, #41], which competes in America’s NASCAR stock car series. “I think Haas will be accepted,” said Ecclestone, the sport’s chief executive. “They have got the money but it’s a question of whether they are going to spend it.” In addition to his stake in the NASCAR team, Haas is also the founder of leading American engineering firm Haas Automation, which has annual revenues of around $1bn (£600m). It gives him the resources to fuel his bid and he is already using it to attract top names, as Günther Steiner, a former technical director of the four-time Formula One champions Red Bull Racing, is understood to be involved.(The Independent)(4-3-2014)