The A and B team style of management in Formula 1 has been a very successful one for numerous teams, with the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes partnering with smaller teams on the grid to share parts.
Alfa Romeo and Haas both share a relationship with Ferrari, who supply the teams with their power units and various parts.
Haas’ technical partnership with Ferrari has been heavily criticized in the past, as the team’s success during its first couple of seasons in the sport was credited to Ferrari.
McLaren and Force India both protested against Haas’ relationship with Ferrari in 2018, as the car produced by the team looked awfully similar to the car produced by the Scuderia the season before.
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Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has now hit back at these copying claims, suggesting the rival teams only use this partnership as an excuse when Haas are doing well and fall silent when the team are less successful.
“If you are good, you are a copycat, if you are bad, nobody cares,” he told Autosport.
“It’s like, alright then, keep on sating it, we have heard this before. It’s a broken record. It doesn’t do anything to me. I couldn’t care less about it.”
The team have not been subject to many accusations in recent seasons because Haas have been languishing towards the back of the grid, following their decision to save money in 2021 by appointing two rookies and focusing all their finances on planning for the major regulation changes that came in 2022.
Now that the team have become more competitive, showing flashes of brilliance last year with Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher, the accusations have begun to resurface, much to the annoyance of Steiner.
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The Haas boss has suggested that his team will be even more competitive this year, as for the first time he expects his team to be able to hit the budget cap, putting them on a level playing field with the rest of the grid.
The financial boost of their new title sponsor will help the team achieve this in 2023, as the team have finally replaced Uralkali with MoneyGram ahead of next season to massively improve their financial situation.
The team will be known as MoneyGram Haas F1 Team this year and will have a much more experienced driver behind the wheel, as Nico Hulkenberg replaces the promising yet inconsistent Mick Schumacher.
