It’s the second season for the Haas F1 Team, and the best result it has had was back in its second race of 2016, when Romain Grosjean finished fifth in Bahrain. The team is eighth (out of 10) in the constructors’ championship, and drivers Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen left the Mexican Grand Prix on Oct. 29 just 13th and 14th in the drivers’ championship. Autoweek recently got an update on the American Formula 1 team’s progress from team owner Gene Haas, who also co-owns NASCAR’s Stewart-Haas Racing. AUTOWEEK: The team has the money to succeed in F1, so why is it not winning races?Gene Haas: Winning is something not even in the scope of where we are. We’re just trying to compete. I think the only way we would ever win was if there was some kind of a disaster race where a lot of contenders were taken out. Anything is possible, but usually when the disasters occur, we’re in them! That’s because we’re in the back —the worst place to be. AW: How can the team close the gap?GH: We have two good drivers, and our cars are really pretty good. But I don’t think we’ve gotten the results that are commensurate with the equipment that we have. A lot of that comes down to the learning process of trying to sort out all these parameters, specifically tires and brakes. It is real critical to get the tire temperatures within a certain window and also not to damage the tires. We’ve had a lot of problems when we have overstressed the tires. You find that if you tell the driver to back off, he goes faster!

AW: So is F1 more complex than you thought?

GH: NASCAR is just as complicated, and we struggle with that sometimes, too. In F1, there are just a lot more parts that move around. They are all very, very important. I think we have all the parts, but we have to figure out how we make all these parts work. The real dilemma for us is trying to get the harmony between the car, the driver and the track to get to the next level. Some of it is the team. Some of the team members are relatively new, and it takes a bit of time for everyone to understand the processes. It’s not something that you can go to another team and acquire. There is no shortcut.

AW: How long will it take?

GH: I think if after five years we are still way at the back and not where we want to be, then we would have to rethink whether we still want to be in F1. But in the five years, there will be opportunities that will manifest themselves, that we can take advantage of. Hopefully, one of those will be the one that catapults you to at least be midteam competitive or a little bit better, and from there it is kind of like going up a ladder. It’s one step at a time. I would think that in 10 years, we should have the ability to win a race, and if we can’t, I guess we failed.

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