The manager of the North American team, Guenther Steiner, comments on how the conversations were prior to his entry into the world of Formula 1. The de Haas did not hesitate to affirm that he contacted Stefano Domenicali to be advised about the Great Circus. Guenther had several conversations and some hints of attempts to reach the category, but Stefano did not give him the go-ahead, he told him to find someone who was willing to seriously invest in the project. Then the attempt was delayed for another year, but it was then that Gene Haas, until then embarked on NASCAR, came on the scene. At that time, everything began to become a solid project, although now it has been adrift for a while, but their goals are clear.
It took time to find a compelling project
“The idea came up in a very strange way. At the time, F1 had lost manufacturers like BMW, Toyota and Honda, while among those who wanted to join was USF1, which he had his base 15 km from my house. I was introduced to the director, Ken Anderson, because he needed my company to do some work for him. Bernie Ecclestone called me regularly and asked me what was wrong because everything was not clear. Then one day, I got a call from Chad Hurley, the main investor, who asked me what to do to get into F1, since he knew that world. The only solution was to buy the cars Dallara was building for Campos, but clearly there was not enough time to enter the championship. ”
“After a couple of days, he told me to contact Mr. Dallara to discuss the matter. One afternoon he had some free time, so I was in touch with Stefano Domenicali, to ask him what the F1 environment was like in those years and to understand more about it. Stefano recommended that I not go ahead with Hurley because he understood that it was not a project with a solid foundation. But the idea of making an F1 team was already in my head, so I thought about it for a while. In those months there was talk of a third F1 team for potential customer teams, so after a while I called Domenicali to propose a project structured in such a way as to have this car. “
“Said: ‘Find someone willing to seriously invest in racing and then we’ll see.‘. So I started reaching out to people from the racing world, until I found someone who knew Gene Haas, who was involved in NASCAR at the time. We met and started talking about it, first remotely and then in detail. The negotiations lasted a year, and eventually Gene was convinced to join, so he asked me to get him a ticket. It’s always difficult at first, but once you find someone to finance the project, it’s just a matter of working on it to make it happen, do it right and use the knowledge you have. “