Haas and Ferrari have improved massively this season. While the Italian team is currently leading both drivers and constructors’ world championship, Haas have managed to score points in 2 out of the 3 races. But there have been many questions put up by other teams on the grid about their working relationship this season.
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Many teams, including Mercedes and McLaren, have raised a few eyebrows about Haas and Ferrari. McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has hinted that Prancing Horses might be getting IP inputs.
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F1 teams cannot share their IP with their customer teams as a part of their working partnership. The customer teams are only allowed inputs on the power unit and gearbox from the manufacturer.
McLaren team boss question Haas and Ferrari’s working partnership in 2022
To have a better relationship with Ferrari, Haas has even moved to an office near Maranello. Haas shares a gearbox and power unit with Ferrari, while reports stated that they even share some mechanical parts. But team principal Guenther Steiner mentioned anyone can check their offices and how they work.
“Anyone who wants to get in there has to use their own entrance. Our computer systems are completely separate. No Formula 1 employee from Ferrari comes in there,” said Steiner.
Formula One F1 – Saudi Arabia Grand Prix – Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – March 26, 2022, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen during qualifying REUTERS/Ahmed Yosri
But McLaren’s team boss revealed why teams sharing IPs will be tough for teams like them. ” There should be no sharing of any infrastructure and so on. As soon as you allow that, IP transfer is happening on the car side and we also know from the FIA that it’s difficult to police.”
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“And if something is not possible to the police, you need to ban it. That’s for two reasons: because it makes B teams overly competitive compared to teams like us and, at the same time, there’s A teams also benefiting from this, which is even more worrying for us,” said Seidl.
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It is certainly an important point raised by the German regarding the data sharing between teams. Since McLaren does not use that many inputs from the power unit supplier Mercedes, it is indeed difficult for them to see the rise of Haas so drastically this season.
But it is still unclear how the American team operates after shifting their office near Ferrari’s factory this season.
