Saw a video of Haas (Dutch name by the way) himself explaining he extended his North Carolina (NASCAR) business to accomodate the new F1 activities. Also heard Grosjean speaking of it at the end of last season. So what's the deal then on the F1 facility's at Banburry vs. Haas HQ in NC ?
I was born and bred in TX, my blood relative died at the Alamo but was born in South Carolina. I have traced the Travis name back to 1066AD and I'll be damned, I'm French! Heads or tails? Left lane or right lane?
They are as American and Force India is Indian. The only funny thing is Haas is using it to sell tools that make things, when most of what goes into his cars are made by someone else.
Yes! - I do! Mercedes bought out Illmor engineering in the UK - The company that used to design and build the Mercedes F1 engines in the UK. Their entire F1 operation is based in the UK: Headquarters: Mercedes Formula One Team, Brackley, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom, NN13 7BD Almost all of their team members are from the UK. I'm pretty certain that the engineering that is all over the Mercedes F1 car is actually British and not German!
All very nice but doesn't answer the question; what's the deal on the Haas's F1 facility at Banburry vs. Haas Racing in NC where Gene Haas extended his facilities to accomodate his F1 venture? Where is Haas F1 really based ?
The F1 team and NASCAR team are both headquartered and controlled from home base which is in Kannapolis, North Carolina.
Haas himself has declared that this whole project is not about being a stars 'n' stripes waving exercise to promote the USA, it's all about promoting his Haas machine tool company in markets where the company is either completely unknown or just a bit part player at best. Whilst Haas Machine Tools are massive in the USA, come to Europe, the Far East and elsewhere and hardly anybody uses them. It's an interesting plan, but in all honesty I think the cost of being in F1 will massively outweigh the income from any new business it might generate (a big problem with trying to break into new machine tool markets is that companies have a tendency to stick with machine tool manufacturers that they already know and deal with as it saves them a lot of money in having to re-train their machine tool operatives when it comes to controllers, and the time required to build up a relationship with the manufacturer).
Interesting. I guess in all honesty we could just refer to the team as a international team, I am ok with that.
I should have added in My post that Haas also stated that that was why there was no red, white and blue in the cars livery, because the project was to promote Haas Machine Tools and not the USA, so it was painted in Haas corporate colours. If anything, with Ferrari building the power unit and Dallara building the chassis, I'd say the car is Italian! (And this is one of the things that bugs Me about the Haas car: They're not manufacturing anything major for the car, they're just buying them from the Italians! Personally I think they should at least have to make the chassis themselves in order to be classified as a manufacturer!)
That thing that you think is Mercedes´heritage is no more than a few cans of silver paint applied to an ex-tobacco brand, later Honda, PR stunt. Now it´s Mercedes PR stunt. A few years ago they threatened to leave if things weren't done like they wanted; had they done so, now the "legendary Silver Arrows" would be someone else´s PR stunt. If that Great Britain based Mercedes subsidiary stays in the racing business for 60 years like the one trick pony from Via Abetone Inferiore, Maranello, MO, Italy, we´ll resume this conversation in different terms.
The "official" base of Sauber is Switzerland ... where racing is illegal. Where do they build and test the cars? Mercedes AMG is based in UK, but they're a German team. For that matter, how much of your "American" car is made in the US? Assembled there, maybe. Even Chevy, who claimed to be "American" had to include Canada and South America in that. Is your Fiat 500 Italian? (The ones delivered in the US are made in Mexico.) But, of course, the real question, from a politician's standpoint: Do they pay taxes to the IRS? (Does every team that wins a "big prize" in Austin have to pay US taxes? )
I like the open and free attitude of Mr Haas - His words today Haas F1 Team makes a great debut on the Australian GP “This is racing. It’s what we do for a living and, you know, it’s cool. But I’ll tell you, there’ll be some bad days too, so we’ll enjoy this one." Oh Ron Dennis you should lighten up like Mr Haas and enjoy being in a racing life!!
Build yes, test no. However they don't test there not because racing is illegal, but because F1 limits testing anyhow, so they test like any F1 team wherever the official test takes place (Barcelona, Dubai). BTW: Racing is not illegal per se in Switzerland. There are many motorsports races run every year. I even participated in some when I lived there. What is illegal are cars vs cars on track. What is allowed are timed runs. So one car on track per given time is fine. And thus Sauber could actually test in Switzerland if the FIA wouldn't restrict testing. There are tracks around. Also Sauber has done straight line runs on former military airports.
Grosjean said he was happy for his American team. I'll take his word for it that his team is an American team.
And also bought out the Brawn team. Their contributions are the name and money from the corporate PR budget. Yet Ben Edwards on the UK TV commentary insists on calling it a "German car". He is also calling the Haas an American car. Fair enough I suppose.
What's your point? We live now in a globalized world... If we take all things literally, a lot of companies that were born in the USA are not American anymore because they have their headquarters registered elsewhere. Even Ferrari is now registered in the Nederlands.
If I bought out Ferrari, put My name on the car, spent My money on the PR budget, but still designed and built the cars in Italy, would they be Italian or English? Yeah but Ben Edwards don't know s:censored:t! - He is so wishy-washy! Both the BBC and Channel4 should have gone with James Allen for their race commentary alongside David Coulthard! (And as for Steve Jones - God I missed Suzi Perry today! )
