Haas' problem: 'We don't have the conversation at coffee here'
General
Haas F1 was founded in 2014 by Gene Haas and has been actively competing in the Formula 1 championship since 2016. The team has not been a high-flyer in the past eight years. The way the organisation is fragmented across the globe does not seem to make things easy for the team.
Haas is in three time zones
In a competitive world like Formula 1, a clinically operated organisation is crucial. As an F1 team, having different aspects of the organisation close together is beneficial. Think factory, headquarters, wind tunnel and possibly a track nearby for testing. A team like Aston Martin has invested in this optimal organisation in recent years, but the Haas team is fragmented across three time zones.
Simone Resta, Haas' technical director, explains to Speedcafe.com how the team functions in a tenuous situation. The headquarters of the team founded by American Gene Haas is in Charlotte, in the United States. Its own Factory is in Banbury, in the UK. That is the former home of Manor F1. Resta's design team is based in Italy in an office in Maranello near the Ferrari complex.
As if that were not scattered enough, the F1 team's chassis is also largely built in another location. Dallara is building the chassis in Parma, Italy, an hour away from Maranello. Resta says of it, "I think that makes it a lot harder in a way." Haas lacks a natural collaboration between all the different departments of the F1 team.
Resta takes the positive out of problematic organisation
Resta: "It helps if the discussion can be more of an informal discussion. Normally it goes in a certain automatic flow. You can have a cup of coffee with a mechanic and then you find out how difficult a certain part of the car works." That is not possible for Haas as long as the design office sits next to the Fiorano circuit, while the workshop is near Silverstone.
The technical director explains Haas' solution: "We are avid users of Teams [...] At the end of the day, you do these things with Teams, with lots of people. Phone, WhatsApp, or whatever; all those things from the younger generation are our way of working." And that presents opportunities. Resta: "There is a lot of diversity within the team. Probably more than at other companies [...] You bring together very different views. I think that is very positive."