Haas makes its official debut
More than the modest number of laps completed, the important thing today for Haas and its drivers was elsewhere: the American team made its official debut as a Formula 1 team.
History will not remember that Esteban Gutierrez and Romain Grosjean ranked 18th and 20th in the Friday morning session. It will remember above all that the United States once again has representatives in F1 through a 100% new team. That’s what Romain Grosjean emphasized: « It was a tremendous effort from everyone to be out on time at the start of FP1. It was a very strong moment for Gene and Günther, who have been working on this project for a very long time. We have officially become a Formula 1 team today. »
If Esteban Gutierrez was in line with his teammate regarding the symbolic importance of this day, he somewhat regretted that it was not as fruitful as expected due to the weather: « The conditions were variable today. However, we ran as much as possible to gather as much data as possible to prepare for Saturday. We obviously have work to do tonight to get everything ready for tomorrow but I look forward to getting back out there. »
The Mexican, making his return to F1 after a reserve season with Ferrari, had a bit of a scare during the second practice session when he made an error in the first corner, but it did not have the same consequences as it did for Nico Rosberg since he did not hit the wall and didn’t get stuck in the gravel.
Gutierrez runs onto the gravel at Turn 1 but manages to avoid beaching his Haas #AusGP #FP2 pic.twitter.com/BHb3lqbBhE
— Formula 1 (@F1) 18 mars 2016
After this first day passed without a hitch, Haas is preparing to face the tough law of the stopwatch and qualifications for the first time.
