Category: 2016 Formula 1 Season

2016 Hungarian Grand Prix

The Hungarian Grand Prix did not bring points for the Haas F1 Team, but they had a good race. Esteban Gutierrez was the top Haas performer, and again out performed his teammate Romain Grosjean by finishing 12th. Grosjean finished in 14th position. Gutierrez was later given a 5-second penalty for failing to acknowledge a blue flag, and those 5 seconds were enough to drop him to 13th position.

The team demonstrated great consistency by maintaining their mid field positions throughout the race was able to maintain their Midfield positions. The team maintained consistency throughout the race weekend. Grosjean qualified 11th and Gutierrez 15th. At one point Gutierrez was in 11th and threatening for his first point’s position. But the Mercedes powered force India of Sergio Perez was just too much and Esteban had to be happy with 12th Place.

As a new F1 team, Haas does not have performance data from previous years as a benchmark. So with each race the team must begin to understand the tactics required for each individual track. Consistency is the best indicator of the team’s performance. With each race they are learning how to better develop and execute their race strategy. With each year the team will progress. But for this year we want to see consistency. Their consistency will provide greater abilities and confidence within the team as they grow. And they are growing by leaps and bounds.

The Haas F1 team is getting stronger and stronger with each race. The next step in the teams development will be for Esteban Gutierrez to score the point .  After that the next goal will be to have two cars in the points. Hopefully this will happen at the same time.

The German Grand Prix is next.

Until then auf wiedersehen.

2016 British Grand Prix – Post Race

The Haas F1 Team entered the 50th British Grand Prix weekend with hope and optimism. Race day was wet, it was raining when the lights went green. All of the cars started the race with full wet tires and the first five laps were clocked behind the safety car. The rain quickly subsided. The field pitted with the safety car and they all went to slicks.

For the Haas Team, it was not the success they were hoping for. Romain Grosjean qualified in the 13th position while his Mexican team-mate Esteban Gutierrez started next to him in 14th position. Both cars making the second qualifying round would be the best the team could accomplish for the weekend.

The first sign of trouble for the Haas Team occurred on the 17th lap. A gear box (transmission) failure for Romain Grosjean ended his day. Grosjean’s only other retirement this season was in Spain. Esteban Gutierrez finish the race in 16th position and was the last car to finish the race. He was lapped by the race leading Mercedes of Nico Rosberg on the 28th lap.

The Haas team is showing good reliability. They are continually improving with each race and their drivers are winning battles on the track. They finished the British Grand Prix with the same number of points they started, 28.

The Hungarian Grand Prix is in two weeks. We’ll see you then!

2016 Austrian Grand Prix – Race Final

Esteban Gutiérrez recently outperformed his teammate Romain Grosjean at the Spanish, Monaco and Canadian Grand Prix’s. Both in Spain and Monaco Esteban finished 11th, nearly capturing his first points for the Haas F1 Team. Though he did fall behind his team mate at the European Grand Prix, we’ve been seeing a surge in Esteban’s performance. And that dominance continued through qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix. Esteban Gutiérrez started 11th while Romain Grosjean started 13th.

At the end of the day Gutiérrez finished where he started, 11th. But Romain Grosjean again brought the Ferrari powered Haas car back into points by finishing 7th.  The Haas F1 team is firmly planted in the 8th constructors championship standing with 28 points and only 4 points behind Mclaren. And Jenson Button surely gave his Mclaren team a lift with his 6th place finish. The silver lining for the Haas Team is that both of their cars finished today. Fernando Alonso alone has as many DNF’s as the entire Haas team with 3 total. Button had two DNF’s himself. As the Haas Team pushes their cars harder towards the front there will be an impact on reliability. But this is the payoff we are looking to capitalize on, and reliability can be what turns those three Gutiérrez P11 finishes into points.

But for our man Romain Grosjean, what can we say… he just delivers. He spent half of the Austrian Grand Prix fighting off the Force India of Carlos Sainz and the Williams of Valtteri Bottas. The Haas car was giving Romain the horses he needed to fight the two Mercedes powered cars. Grosjean never gave his opponents a clean opportunity to pass and was at times threatening the Mclaren of Button in front of him. And because he was consistently less than one second behind Button, Grosjean never lost a DRS zone advantage. So he stayed pace with the competitors behind him .

So the Austrian Grand Prix is a good start to what promises to be a very busy July. From Austria the teams travel to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix on July 10th. Two weeks later on July 24th the teams meet at the Hungaroring for the Hungarian Grand Prix. A week later on July 31st is the German Grand Prix. With the Austrian race being the first of four races this month, the teams will be looking forward to their summer break in August.

So onto Silverstone for the Haas F1 Team and their fans. Our goal is to outperform McClaren on their home turf and close the four point gap with them. From there we set our sights on the Toro Rosso team, currently only leading the Haas team by only 8 points…

There are three more races until the summer break. A constructors championship goal of 7th before the break is not unreasonable. Their 8th place position in the constructors championship is safe with Renault lagging behind by 22 points in 9th place. So not only has the team already over performed beyond expectations, they’ve do so with little threat of losing their 8th place standing. With three races remaining before the half way point, the team is in a position to make a 4 point gain on McClaren and go into the break in 7th place! That may be a shade optimistic, but the luck factor does seem to play huge in F1. And considering how experienced Gene Haas is at running a race team, the luck might just continue.

But for today… Well done Haas F1 Team!!! Way to Represent!!!

 

2016 European Grand Prix – Final

The European Grand Prix was held in Azerbaijan. It is here where this posting for the Haas F1 Journal picks up….

Azerbaijan is a small country on the west coast of the Caspian sea, you know Europe. To the west Azerbaijan shares a border with Armenia. As a kid I feld weird because no one in my school ever heard of Armenia, and my mother’s parents both came from Armenia. My father’s parents both came from England and I inherited his skin tone, so I look European. But never in the history of my family or the entire Armenian race have they even been considered European. Here is a little video clip from my mother regarding the “Azerbaijan in Europe” fiasco… Select that link and you will hear Veronica has to say about that!

The race… The race did not fail to disappoint. I expected a boring race and those expectations were met. The course looks like a Google maps route for the pizza delivery guy. The track was divided into two sections, old and new. the old section had that iconic castle and a few nice turns.. the new part of the track consisted of many right hand turns. the racing was almost like stop light to stop light. the twitter feed during the race was wildfire because people were so bored from the race.

The one thing that I noticed were the stark streets. There were relatively no fans. The camera’s would pan as they followed cars around the track and there were no bystanders. No kids in trees. the race looked like it was being held on a movie set. During the race I stated on twitter that the race had an “erie” feeling to it. We later learned that the FIA hung backdrops over ugly buildings. these backdrops were painted to look like beautiful homes, and on TV it worked.

So my attitude towards this race is not healthy to begin with.

Romain Grosjean re-established himself at the team leader by out qualifying and finishing Esteban Gutierrez. Grosjean qualified 13th while his team mate Gutierrez qualified 16th. they finished 11th and 15th respectively.

There is nothing special about this race worth noting, and that is what makes this race special. With a workman attitude, the Haas F1 Team has brought home both cars for another complete race. Their mechanical reliability has stood up well. AMG Mercedes only has two DNF’s (Did Not Finish)  this year. Haas F1 has three. Ferrari has also had three DNF’s with a DNS (Did Not Start) also thrown in, which is worse than a DNF. So that puts Haas second in terms of reliability with Williams and tied with Red Bull who has 2 DNF’s and a DNS.  The Haas F1 Teams reliability is up there with the most experienced teams in the history of F1. Their results are not very shiny and it has been a while since we’ve seen points.

The Haas F1 Team is on it’s first time around the F1 carrousel . They’ve got a lot to learn as they collect new data for every track they visit. But every race they are bringing it!  Let’s get out of this place and head to Spiegel Austria!

2016 Canadian Grand Prix – Race Final

The North American continent got it’s first opportunity to watch America’s formula 1 team in action at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Haas F1 Team approached this race with a very aggressive strategy. Neither the Haas not Lotus team brought soft tires to Canada, both brought only Softs and Ultrasofts, no supersofts. The main difference is that Lotus has 5 sets of those soft tires with the remaining 8 strictly super softs. The Haas team brought only 3 sets of soft tires and 10 sets of Ultrasofts. It seems the Haas team was willing to risk tire degradation for the payoff of better grip. But at the end of the it just seems that the Haas Ferrari is not quite fast enough.

Gutierrez and Grosjean qualified 14th and 15th respectively. and again they finished 13th and 14th respectively. The young Mexican sensation out performed his French rival when the pair finished the race 13th and 14th, with Grosjean being beat out again by his team mate.

The most exciting part of this race was not exciting at all. The team again finished the race with both cars. Neither were in points but… both cars finished the race, again! Consider this run of races the dog days of the freshman schedule. The team has shaken out the car. They have scored points and the taste of points is an easy one to get use to. But let us not forget, we are still in the first year. There have been no mistakes in the pits so far. No ground seems to have been lost due to any strategy mistakes. The car just needs to go faster… Push Boys!!!

My race reports have not been very comprehensive, and Azerbaijan will not be much different. The next race is the least exciting on the schedule, The European Grand Prix…

 

2016 Monaco Grand Prix – Race Final

It was an amazing sight seeing an American Formula 1 team on the streets of Monaco. The resulting images were far more appealing and valuable than the race results. The team just missed points with Gutierrez and Grosjean finishing 12th and 15th respectively.

But the part of the finish which is easy to miss is the finish. Yet again, the Haas F1 Team brought both of their outfits hofe for a final race. they’ve notched yet another race on the reliability totem pole. We’ve been spoiled by their early points, and it’s easy to overlook what they are achieving. Reliability is a foundation that winning must be built on. Proving successful in the small things will bear fruit in the end. But for now, we can wallow in the self imposed pitty off no points!

Kimi Raikkonen seemed to end Grosjean’s chances for points when his spin put grosjean at the back of the pack. Once Grosjean got stuck behind the Manor car driven by Wehrlein he was done.  Esteban could not bring home that 10th position… he seems to be stuck at 11th.

Onward and upward… On to Canada! ah?

2016 Monaco Grand Prix – Race Preview

Red Bull is bringing their “A” game to the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix. They have developed a new engine, but only have one ready. Despite the amazing victory by Max Verstappen in Spain, the decision was a no brainer for the engine choice nod to go to Daniel Riccardo.

After watching the first two practice sessions the general consensus seems to be that Red bull is the likely candidate for pole, and Riccardo’s lead after P2 seems to support that. But rewind and contrast to the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix.  Vettel took his first victory in a Ferrari after only his second drive for the team. It was what would become the beginning of a culture of complaining being expressed by the Red Bull Team principal. The noise coming from the Red Bull camp seemed to simmer down once their motor contract issues were resolved late in the 2015 season. Max Verstappen’s win in Spain has solidified their belief that they can win with this car, and the Monaco circuit suites the Red Bull chassis well. The Planets are aligned and Christian Horner seems poised to have his revenge.

I know this is the Haas F1 Journal, but the discussion must begin with pole position. Passing on the Monaco circuit generally comes at the cost of a mistake by another driver. But the narrow  roads that twist up and down the steep grades of the mediterranean fishing village were too dangerous for racing in the 1950’s. I would place the odds of a yellow flag after turn 1 at over 50% in favor of a “coming together” if not worse. If the team can qualify well, not lose position or contention because of crashing, and the attrition rate in front of them is high, the Haas F1 Team can score points. There are a lot  “if’s” in that sentence, but the Haas Team is at even odds with the rest of the pack in that regard. The racecraft that Gene Haas brings to the F1 paddock could be the difference in a position or whether they score points. Attrition is generally  beyond the control of the team. But mistakes can be less forgiving at Monaco. A stuck wheel spinner during a pit stop could mean a position. So having the fastest car on pole should give you the best opportunity to clear turn 1 as the leader. The odds for trouble escalates as you work your way back through the first few rows of legitimate contenders. It is that next group of teams where Haas has demonstrated  good pace to compete, among the mid-pack teams.

Now this is a new team, but the learning curve is steep. There is a very real possibility for the Haas F1 Team to score points in Monaco. But can they put 2 cars in the money? It’s really difficult to objectively say. Esteban Gutierrez finished Practice 2 in 13th position and Romain Grosjean in 15th.  The Haas racecraft has proven effective up to this point. But is Monaco the “eye opener” the Haas detractors spoke of before the season started? Could be.

Like I said, the learning curve is steep and there is less room for mistakes at Monaco. The Haas drivers will be up to the task. I have complete confidence in Romain Grosjean and am modestly optimistic. In Spain Grosjean qualified in 13th position. Gutierrez anchored the last position from the Q2 qualifiers in 15th position.  That is about where we should realistically expect them to qualify for Monaco. Can they score points from that far back? The Ferrari power in the Haas car has demonstrated the ability to keep the mid pack at bey when their tires hold out. Perhaps tire strategy could come into play?

The Ultra Soft Pirelli’s seem to be a bit… “floaty” during practice. The side walls do not appear to be matching the design metrics or load balancing intent of the suspension. Commentators on NBC indicated that more rear wing down force is required to keep the back ends of the cars planted. But a sidewall performance issue can only be negated by the rear downforce, not corrected. If the side walls of the front tires are providing varied load transfer to the suspension then a suspension adjustment is required first. But vehicle dynamics can be more of an art than engineering. So the suspension has to be tuned to an estimated mid-point of the various sidewall stiffness on the various compounds. If the softness of the Ultrasofts are too far out of the range,  we could see excessive rear tire wear as the backs ends of the cars lose that balance between the front and rear tires and the load fails to transfer, causing an imbalance in dynamics and the rear to float. Hence excessive tire wear.

Who knows what will happen. The third practice has not happened yet, so I am working with what info I have through P2. But perhaps I’ve omitted the single factor which could have the biggest impact, the weather. The forecast for qualifying is for warm temps up to 75 degrees (24 celsius). The race is scheduled to start at 2:00 PM local time (8:00 AM East Coast US) On Sunday. Accu-Weather is predicting 51% chance of thunder showers at 1:00 PM in Monaco.

I’m sticking with my default prediction. Haas will have one car in points. Having both cars cross the finish line will be an important feat. The rain could be a mess, making for an exciting race. And the rain favors Grosjean. He seems to do well when tire treatment comes into play. This is where racecraft, good driving and a bit of luck at turn 1 could play to the favor of the Haas Team.

I’d be remiss if I did not mention the pride which will be felt by Americans around the world as the Haas F1 cars line up on the starting grid of the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix. The excitement for the Haas F1 Team is growing across the US. And when a car wearing the American flag competes, it also competes for 300 Million other Americans. This is Memorial Day weekend in the United States. On Monday May 30th we will not only be enjoying an extended weekend holiday but remembering the fallen Americans from all wars.  The flag on the Haas car races for them, and 300 Million Americans are along for the ride!

Qualifying is tomorrow… BRING IT ON!!!      Go Haas F1 Team!!!

2016 Spanish Grand Prix – Race Final

Well, in racing there is only one position that counts, and Max Verstappen was that guy.

But on the day we’d see Formula 1’s youngest driver win a  Championship race, the daily race grind of development continued in the Haas F1 Garage. The 56th of 66 laps saw Romain Grosjean retire. First with a nose issue than a braking issue doomed his race.

Esteban Gutierrez could not hold onto that final points position and landed in 11th place. We are yet to see the young Mexican bring home points for the Haas F1 Team. His tires faded and he could not hold that 10th spot. this was Esteban’s opportunity to take his drive to the next level and he could not. His car has not been reliable and he has express apprehension about being blamed for team issues. And it is in his self-defense that he creates a gap between him and the team. The team should be making these statements to cover the driver. Is there a riff? Esteban does seem to be somewhat reactive to situations and it’s probably best that camera’s not be present at those moments. A single sound bite can change everything.

So The Haas F1 team scored no points and only one car completed the race. My goal for the team was to have two cars complete the race with one in points. But Barcelona was the first benchmark for the team.

Grosjean was fighting in the points when he had to retire. So the performance is in the car. We’ve got 5 races in the books. We’ve his the first milestone for the team and the fans are optimistic. It is not realistic to judge the progress of the Haas F1 Team on a weekly basis. We want a winner every week, but the rookie team is still in development. Progress can be measured in 4-5 race increments. I believe we can expect a continually steady climb in the team’s performance.

Gene Haas wants to see CNC machines, but on race day it’s all about winning!

Bring on Monaco!!! It is going to be absolutely fantastic!!!!!!

2016 Spanish Grand Prix – Some Pre-race Sangria

It is Saturday night on the East Coast of the United States. The Spanish Grand prix is tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM.  Europe means 8 AM sunday races… yes!

If the F1 season was a football game we’d be starting the second quarter. The team has established a 4 race baseline and are starting to up their expectations. Grosjean and Gutierrez qualified 14thand 16th.  Both cars made it out of the first qualifying session and were eliminated in the second. Yes it is racing and second place is the first looser.  Getting both cars into Q2 is a reasonable expectation or target for success.

Coming into Spain our hopes were raised just slightly because Catalunya Madrid is the only track on the schedule that the team had performance data on.  Grosjean complained that the car was undrivable during practice. They dialed the car back to the Sochi setup and started over. Romain seemed happier with his performance. Or perhaps he was just in a more guarded mindset during the post qualifying media scrum.

The Haas F1 team seems to be consistently qualifying into the area of 12th to 16th positions. Their consistency and reliability have been the hall marks for the team so far. Gains by Mclaren and Renault will keep the mid-pack pressure on the team.

But for the Spanish Grand Prix… again I expect at least 1 car in the points. My target for the team is to have one car in points per race. To maintain that goal we’ll need to see both drivers in points at some point since they have only 1 race so far without a driver in the points.

I expect Grosjean to be in points. He is going to extend the range of his tires and maximize those mediums. He has 2 sets of Hard Compound Pirelli’s. Will we see hard compounds in the race?

prediction: Grosjean in the points.

Not a very exciting journal entry. all of the excitement this race was about Max Verstappen replacing Dany Kvyat at Redbull. I predict a critical mistake by the over zealous Belgian.

 

2016 Russian Grand Prix – Post Race Wrap

Again, the Haas F1 Team delivers. Both cars finished the race and Grosjean landed in 8th. My expectations were exceeded by the team scoring points. But I think we are going to get used to this real quick and the bar will continue to notch up.

The race review I am about to write seems like a repetition to my pre-race analysis, because my pre-race analysis was consistent with what happened.  Since it’s a journal I can say things like that. So…

Turn 1 was a bottleneck, Vettel was knocked out going into turn 2 by Kvyat . Grosjean was off with a jack rabbit start and in a safe position from the turn 1 contacts. Gutierrez found himself in trouble with the Force India car of Nico Hulkenberg and was forced to change his nose when the smoke cleared. Under Caution Gutierrez did not seem to  lose much track position, but in the end he did not gain any either.

Grosjean’s performance, on the other hand, must be bringing the attention from other teams. I give my driver of the day to Jan Magnussen because he did the most with the least. But Romain carried the mail for Haas today.

The Mercedes powered cars were the biggest threat to Haas. The Williams and Force India’s are the teams Haas seems to possibly be on par with.   The Force India of Sergio Perez was on the tail of Grosjean for nearly the entire second half of the race, and the Haas car provided the necessary performance for Grosjean to fight. In all but the Chinese Grand Prix are we seeing that Grosjean’s Haas is in the mix, and winning their battles.

On the other hand, the 21 car is not matching the 8. As Guiterrez settles into the car he will improve.  But the driver selection was based on blind expectations, and an apparent obligation to escalate the Ferrari reserve driver. Was this an out for Ferrari? A courtesy for Haas? We have a long season ahead of us, and a proper evaluation can only be performed after the season. But in the heat of battle it is easy to get over zealous in our evaluations.  But at some point the delta between the two drivers will be  evaluated and it’s impossible to avoid the subject.

Grosjean definitely got the jump on Guitteries when they went green. That put Grosjean into a better position and ahead, and allowed him to emerge unscathed from turn 1. Again,in the pre-race review I mentioned to watch the difference between their two starts. But Grosjean seems to be a master of starting, and that is a trait he brings at Lotus. But Gutierrez was lined up next

Based on the 2014 performance payout schedule, the fifth place team was Williams and  received $83 million dollars in FIA award payouts in 2015.  That is where Haas is on pace to finish.  for a team that is rumored to be operating in the $100 million range, the team could make  profit if they sell enough hats. … But seriously,  the team appears to be in a strong financial position as a result of their performance. Gene Haas was quoted somewhere as saying that paraphrase: Grosjean has already paid for himself.

So a great result. And again, I apologize to @RenaultSportF1  for a tweet comment.  It was made in the “esprit de l’occasion”.

Bring on Barcelona!