What the Stewart-Haas news could mean for Haas F1

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With Stewart-Haas ceasing operations on the NASCAR side of things, will there be any impact to Haas F1?

The motorsport world received confirmation on Tuesday that one of the more successful teams in NASCAR would be shutting down following the 2024 season. After weeks of speculation, Stewart-Haas announced on Tuesday in a statement that the team would be closing operations at the end of the year.

What might this mean for the Haas Formula 1 team?

First, the news out of NASCAR. In a statement co-owners Tony Stewart and Gene Haas announced that at the end of 2024 the team, which was formed back in 2009 and delivered a pair of NASCAR Cup titles — Stewart’s title in 2011 and Kevin Harvick’s in 2014 — would be ceasing operations:

“We have made the difficult decision to close Stewart-Haas Racing at the conclusion of the 2024 season. It is a decision that did not come easily, nor was it made quickly.

“Racing is a labor-intensive, humbling sport. It requires unwavering commitment and vast resources, with a 365-day mindset to be better than everyone else. It’s part of what makes success so rewarding.

“But the commitment needed to extract maximum performance while providing sustainability is incredibly demanding, and we’ve reached a point in our respective personal and business lives where it’s time to pass the torch.

“We’re proud of all the wins and championships we’ve earned since joining together in 2009, but even more special is the culture we built and the friendships we forged as we committed to a common cause — winning races and collecting trophies.

“That is the same commitment we made to our personnel, our partners and our fans coming into this year, and that commitment will remain through the season finale at Phoenix.

“We have tremendous respect and appreciation for all of our employees, and we will work diligently to assist them during this transition to find new opportunities beyond the 2024 race season.”

Stewart-Haas currently has four drivers in the NASCAR Cup series — Josh Berry, Noah Gragson, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece — as well as Cole Custer and Riley Herbst in NASCAR’s Xfinity series.

With the team’s relationship with Ford set to end at the conclusion of the 2024 season, and without a manufacturer lined up for the 2025 campaign, rumors of this move were lingering in the motorsport world for weeks.

Now the question because what impact, if any, could this have on the Haas F1 team?

At first blush, perhaps no impact at all. Gene Haas has been spending more time with the F1 operation in recent months, and ahead of the 2024 season a leadership change came. Guenther Steiner, the only Team Principal in Haas F1 history, was out, replaced by Ayao Komatsu.

That move has paid some early dividends, as Haas currently sit seventh in the Constructors’ Championship, ahead of their last-place finish a year ago. It also reflects the motive for the change, according to Haas himself. “It came down to performance,” Haas told Lawrence Barretto back in January when the move was announced. “Here we are in our eighth year, over 160 races – we have never had a podium. The last couple of years, we’ve been 10th or ninth.

“I’m not sitting here saying it’s Guenther’s fault, or anything like that, but it just seems like this was an appropriate time to make a change and try a different direction, because it doesn’t seem like continuing with what we had is really going to work.”

During that same conversation, Haas reiterated his commitment to the F1 operation.

“I didn’t get into F1 to sell [the team],” said Haas back in January to F1.com. “I did it because I wanted to race. Guenther had the same perspective. We’re not here to cash out, we want to race and be competitive. If you look at any team, historically, they have had a lot of good years and a lot of bad years.

“Surviving is one of the characteristics of getting better. As long as you can survive, you always have another year to prove your worthiness. This is a big change. Losing Guenther is going to cause the team to have to focus on other aspects. We will hopefully come out better for it.”

And this answer to Barretto last January certainly looks interesting given the Stewart-Haas news: “There is a perception we spend a lot less money; we’re usually within $10m of the budget limit,” said Haas. “I just think we don’t do a very good job of spending that money. A lot of teams have had previous investments in their infrastructure, buildings, equipment and personnel. Our model was to outsource a lot of that. We spend a lot of money. We haven’t exceeded the cap but we’re pretty darn close to it. I just don’t think we’re doing a very good job of spending it in the most effective way.

That’s one of the reasons we have survived – because we are so conscious of how we spend money,” added Haas. “Being efficient at what we do is going to make sure we survive in this series. We’re one of the longest surviving teams, everyone else [other new teams] have had the tendency to spend all their money in the first few years and then they go out of business.

“We survived for eight years, and we’re not in a situation where we are going to go out of business. But I certainly want to be able to survive for the next 10 years.”

So closing down Stewart-Haas may be another efficient move from the Haas that allows the F1 operation to continue on, and potentially thrive given their relationship with Ferrari.

However, this news comes just as discussions around the proposed Andretti-Cadillac team have shifted from that organization becoming the 11th team on the grid, to that team potentially buying an existing team on the grid. Both Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner, and FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem raised that proposition this past weekend during the Monaco Grand Prix.

“I have no doubt FOM and Liberty [Media — F1’s ownership group] would love to see other teams as long as they are OEMs [Original Equipment/Car Manufacturers],” said Ben Sulayem in Monaco to Reuters. “I would advise them [Andretti-Cadillac] to go and buy another team, not to come as the 11th team.”

According to the FIA President, it comes down to a matter of quality, not quantity.

“I feel that some teams need to be refreshed. What is better? To have 11 teams as a number or 10 and they are strong? I still believe we should have more teams but not any teams. The right teams,” added Ben Sulayem.

“It’s not about the number, it’s about the quality.”

Horner mirrored that sentiment ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix.

“I think Andretti is a great racing heritage,” said Horner to assembled media in Monaco. “Mario is a legend of the sport and of course, [they are partnered with] Cadillac, the huge automotive manufacturer from the US.

“I think Formula 1 have said in 2028, if they were to come with their own engine, they would obviously review it but I think in addition to that, I think that if Andretti were to want to come, a little like Audi acquired Sauber, I think to protect the current franchises’ stability that we have in the sport, then, obviously, their best route to the goal is to acquire one of the existing teams.”

Perhaps the Stewart-Haas news has no impact at all on the F1 operation, and maybe even sees the team take another step forward due to the efficiency argument advanced by Haas last January.

Or, perhaps it does have an impact, given the latest twist in the ongoing Andretti-Cadillac saga.