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Rumors suggest that three teams have approached the FIA with concerns regarding Ferrari's alliance with Haas, given the American team's significant improvement in performance from last season. Having scored no points in 2021, the team now finds itself battling in the midfield against the likes of McLaren and Mercedes.
Haas team boss Guenther Steiner claims that any allegations with regards to the team's step up this season are simply "ridiculous." He said that if comparisons were being made to the performance of Ferrari, his team certainly must have done something right. Mercedes' Toto Wolff in particular has been very vocal about his concerns with the extent to which Ferrari supplies resources to Haas.
Commenting on Mercedes' complete domination over recent years, Steiner told Metro UK:
“There are sometimes things in the rules that if they don’t work for you, you cannot go and change it. Mercedes was winning the World Championship eight years in a row, they had a very strong engine, and good for them, they did a good job. But nobody said: 'Oh, we now need to change the engine rule, because Mercedes is winning everything'. There is governance in place. And if certain people think they can change everything by just speaking, I don’t think that is going to happen.”
In response to the allegations, Steiner told F1 Insider:
“You know, these allegations have always existed and always will. I stay calm. If we are good, they call our car a ‘white Ferrari’. If we are bad, then no. I’m starting to find that ridiculous. You have to work hard for envy. You get pity for free. I wish the others would be green with envy because that means we did a very good job.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Magnussen returned to the team earlier this year after spending 2021 on the sidelines. The Dane has already scored points for the team in the first two of the three races in 2022.
"It’s a bit surprising" - Alpine team boss on Haas' performance step-up in 2022
Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer claimed that he was surprised to see Haas fighting in the midfield. The 57-year-old now expects the FIA to be thorough in their investigation regarding how similar the American outfit's car is to that of Ferrari.
As reported by GPFans, Szafnauer expressed his views on the much-improved 2022 Haas challenger, saying:
“It’s a small team that’s done well over the winter, from last to sometimes third-fastest team and it’s a bit surprising. I thought that the pecking order would stay almost the same because generally, in a big regulation change, over the years that I’ve been in Formula 1, the bigger the regulation change, the more it favours those with know-how and the infrastructure and the tools to actually exploit the new rules. So, it’s a bit surprising that the Haas are where they are for a small team but I trust the FIA will investigate and come to the right conclusion between how similar the two cars are.”
Szafnauer was previously at Racing Point, now Aston Martin. The team faced similar criticism in 2020 for its car being too similar to Mercedes' 2019 challenger and for using the latter's wind tunnel.
