What’s happening at Haas? They’re slipping down the pecking order and they’re the only team not using the budget cap in full. They used to have such charisma but I feel that they’re becoming F1’s forgotten team. Have the owners lost interest in the project? – Steve
As F1’s smallest team, both in terms of personnel and budget, Haas have some natural disadvantages that are hard to overcome.
Haas came into this season on the back of their highest-ever points score in 2025, and were bang on time with their new car at the start of the season.
That contrasted with some other high-profile names, who Haas have continued to outperform this year. Haas are unquestionably overachieving for their size – they are not even spending up to the budget-cap limit.
Haas had consecutive points finishes in the first three races, the high point of which was a fifth place for Oliver Bearman in China.
Essentially, the team started the season with a chassis advantage over some rivals and that allowed them to benefit as others were still finding their feet.
At that point, they were on average the sixth-fastest team in qualifying. Now, they are eighth, having slipped behind Racing Bulls and Audi.
Haas have fallen down the pecking order as other teams have introduced upgrades and begun to get on top of the new rules.
Nevertheless, Haas are still seeing the benefits of that strong start – they lie seventh in the constructors’ championship at the mid-point of the season.
Haas did have their own upgrade, introduced in Canada, and featuring a new floor, bodywork and rear suspension. But team principal Ayao Komatsu has said it coincided with the team uncovering what he described as a “fundamental weakness” of the car with regard to a lack of high-speed downforce.
A reluctance by team owner Gene Haas to invest in upgrading the team’s facilities has been a frustration over the years, but a new simulator – funded through Haas’ new partnership with Toyota – is coming on stream shortly, which should give them a boost.
There are valid questions, however, as to what exactly Haas wants from his team. He doesn’t seem interested in investing, but he’s also not interested in selling. So they’re a bit stuck, really.
How soon could a German Grand Prix return to the calendar and what races are likely to replace to Middle Eastern races in 2027 if the conflict continues? – Tom
Formula 1 president Stefano Domenicali raised the possibility of the German Grand Prix returning to the calendar in a call with F1 media at the start of the summer break.
The race was last held in 2019, before falling off the calendar because race organisers could not make the event work financially.
Domenicali said: “Germany, for the first time, we are reconnecting with the possibility of having contact with the Hockenheim people to see if in the future, mid-term, not short term, they can have a race back.”
When and if Germany comes to pass will depend whether organisers can put together a suitable financial package.
Right now, that’s not the case, although things may change if Audi become competitive and that makes two German teams competing at the front.
Don’t forget Domenicali has also said he does not want to have the schedule extend beyond 24 races, and there is pressure to have other new races, especially in Africa.
As for the start of next year in the context of the ongoing war in the Middle East, current plans are for the season start in the Middle East, as it last did in 2024.
Australia had the opener for the past two seasons because of where the Muslim holy month of Ramadan fell.
Domenicali said: “So far, the calendar that will be presented, let’s say in autumn, will be as a sort of a normal plan.
“But of course, in case the situation in the Middle East will be not solved, we have options, [a] different plan. And the trigger for that is at the end of the year. So we have still a lot of time, if I may say, to adjust.
“We have different plans with different options ready in place that will accommodate the fact that we will keep, in any case, the target of 24 countries also for next year.”
In the scenario that Bahrain and Saudi Arabia cannot open the championship in 2027, the obvious solution would be to do what happened this year – start in Australia before moving on to China and Japan.