Gene Haas admits the post-Bernie Ecclestone world of Formula One is "nerve-wracking" for him and his team, despite the arrival of new American owners.

The Haas team is set for its second year in Formula One, having joined the grid in 2016. Haas had to put down a $20 million bond to enter the sport and his team received no FOM money for its first season, prompting the American businessman to sign up to an extensive engine and technical partnership with Ferrari.

Haas proved to be the last team to enter F1 under Ecclestone, who has been moved away from a position of power by new owners Liberty Media. Given the hoops Haas had to jump through to enter Ecclestone's F1 he is sceptical about what the next few years holds with Liberty, especially if they decide to open the sport up to new entrants.

"I have to tell you it's a little bit nerve-wracking because Bernie isn't here anymore," Haas told ESPN. "I understood Bernie, but now it's a whole new group of people and I'm going 'wow, I've just spent a huge amount of time doing it the Bernie way, now the Bernie rules seem to have vanished and it's going to be a whole new set of rules.'

"So I'm a little confused myself by what exactly is going to happen. It would be very frustrating if all of a sudden they just said 'we'll open it up to any team that wants a license.' They can do that, too, I guess."

Haas doubts the business model he adopted for F1, which included a partnership with Italian chassis manufacturers Dallara as well as the close ties with Ferrari, can be a blueprint for every new team which wants to enter the sport due to the unique circumstances around his own arrival -- though he thinks it would definitely make it easier for non-manufacturers to enter.

When asked if he felt his team was well-placed given new American ownership, he replied: "I think what worked for us, but I don't know if another team could come in here and strike a deal with Ferrari and I don't know if they'd want to. I think Ferrari probably looks at it like this was a unique relationship, and I don't think they would want to sit there and say 'we're going to be supplying teams with a lot of our technology,' that's just not what they would want to do.

"Maybe the rules need to change a little bit too where some of the bigger teams have to supply some of the smaller teams with technology. Not just money but some of the technology, because I've been somewhat overwhelmed by how complicated the cars are and racing them is even more complicated. So it's not for a small team to be able to do that. How we did is really just a freak thing.

"We were very lucky that we were able to come into Formula One at a time when they were open to new teams. We kind of missed the original four licenses that were actually handed out for free but we came in afterwards and we were able to get a license. It wasn't really quite free but I don't think going forward there would be many small teams that would be able to accomplish that. But maybe [Liberty] are not looking for small teams either."