The motorsports world received confirmation Tuesday that one of NASCAR’s most successful teams will be on hiatus after the 2024 season. After weeks of speculation, Stewart-Haas announced in a statement on Tuesday that the team will be on hiatus at the end of the year.
What does this mean for Haas F1 Team?
First, news from NASCAR. Co-owners Tony Stewart and Gene Haas said in a statement that the team, which was formed in 2009 and has won two NASCAR Cup titles, with Stewart in 2011 and Kevin Harvick in 2014, will retire at the end of 2024. Suspension of business:
“We have made the difficult decision to close Stewart-Haas Racing at the conclusion of the 2024 season. This was not a decision made lightly, nor was it made quickly.”
“Racing is a labour-intensive and humbling sport. It requires unwavering determination, immense resources and a 365-day mindset of wanting to be better than everyone else. That’s part of what makes success so rewarding.”
“But the work required to maximize performance while delivering sustainability is incredibly demanding, and we have each reached a point in our personal and professional lives where it is time to pass the baton.
“I am proud of all the wins and championships we have achieved since joining the team in 2009, but what is even more special is the culture and friendships we have built while working towards a common goal of winning races and winning trophies.
“This is the same promise we made to our staff, partners and fans earlier this year, and that promise will continue through the season finale in Phoenix.”
“We have a great deal of respect and gratitude for all of our employees and will work diligently to support them during this transition period as they find new opportunities after the 2024 racing season.”
Stewart-Haas currently has four drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series – Josh Berry, Noah Gragson, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Priese – as well as Cole Custer and Riley Herbst in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Rumours of the move have been circulating in motorsport circles for weeks, with the team’s relationship with Ford due to end at the end of the 2024 season and the team still without a manufacturer in place for the 2025 season.
Now the question is, what impact could this have on the Haas F1 Team?
At first glance, it may not have any impact at all. Gene Haas Spending more time Recent months have seen changes to F1’s operations, with a change in leadership ahead of the 2024 season. Gunther Steiner, the only team principal in Haas F1 history, has stepped down and been replaced by Ayao Komatsu.
The move has paid off early, with Haas currently sitting seventh in the standings. Constructors’ ChampionshipThat’s up from last place last year, which Haas said reflects the motivation behind the change. “It came down to performance,” Haas told Lawrence Barrett when the change was announced in January. “We’re in our eighth year, over 160 races, and we’ve never been on the podium. We’ve been 10th or ninth the last few years.”
“I’m not here to say that I blame Guenther or anything like that, it’s just that I don’t think continuing on with what we’ve been doing is really going to work, so it seemed like now was the right time to make a change and try something different.”
During the same conversation, Haas reiterated his commitment to F1 operations.
“We didn’t enter F1 to sell [the team]” Haas said in January. F1.com“I did it because I wanted to race. Günter felt the same way. We’re not here to make money. We want to race and be competitive. If you look at any team, historically there have been a lot of good years and a lot of bad years.
“Survival is one of the traits that allows us to get better. As long as we survive, we always have another year to prove our worth. This is a big change. Losing Gunter forces the team to focus on other aspects. Hopefully, we will get better.”
And given the Stewart-Haas news, this response to Barrett from last January is certainly interesting: “There’s a perception that we’re spending a lot less money — typically within $10 million of the budget cap,” Haas said. “I think we just haven’t been very good at spending that money. A lot of teams have historically invested in infrastructure, buildings, equipment, personnel. Our model has been to outsource a lot of that. We’re spending a lot of money. We’ve never gone over the cap, but we’ve been pretty close. I don’t think we’ve been very good at spending the money in the most effective way.”
“That’s one of the reasons we’ve survived. We’re very careful with how we spend our money,” Haas added. “Being efficient at what we do allows us to survive in this series. We’re one of the longest-surviving teams. [other new teams] They tend to burn through all their funding within the first few years and then go out of business.
“We’ve survived for eight years and we’re not in a position to go out of business, but we want to make sure we can survive for the next 10 years.”
Closing Stewart-Haas could therefore be another efficiency move for Haas that would allow it to continue its F1 operations and potentially thrive given its relationship with Ferrari.
But the news comes just after discussions around the Andretti Cadillac proposal had begun to shift from the organisation being the 11th team on the grid to potentially buying an existing team on the grid – a proposal both Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem floated at last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.
“FOM and Liberty [Media — F1’s ownership group] As long as it’s an OEM, I’d like to see other teams too. [Original Equipment/Car Manufacturers]Ben Sulayem said in Monaco. Reuters“I advise them [Andretti-Cadillac] They’re not coming in as the 11th team, they’re going to buy another team.”
According to the FIA president, it’s a question of quality, not quantity.
“I feel some of the teams need a revamp. Which is better? 11 teams or 10 strong teams? I think there should be more teams, but no teams is no good. We need proper teams,” Ben Sulayem added.
“It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality.”
Horner echoed the sentiment ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix.
“I think Andretti has a great racing tradition.” Horner told a media gathering in Monaco:“Mario is a sports legend, of course. [they are partnered with] Cadillac is a major American automobile manufacturer.
“I think F1 has said that in 2028, if they were to enter with their own engine, they would of course reconsider, but on top of that, if Andretti wanted to enter, I think obviously the best route for them to achieve their goal would be to acquire one of the existing teams, in the same way that Audi bought Sauber, in order to protect the stability of their current franchise in the sport.”
In all likelihood, the Stewart-Haas news will have no impact on F1 operations whatsoever, and the efficiency arguments that Haas made last January may actually push the team a step further.
Or maybe it will have an impact, given the latest developments in the ongoing Andretti vs. Cadillac saga.
