Haas has set an ambitious goal of perhaps keeping up with Williams in 2021

Photo: Haas F1

The Haas Formula 1 squad started the 2021 season rather unhappy. It didn’t have its chassis updates ready for the first run of the season in Bahrain, so it decided to go ahead without them and effectively run a low downforce version of the previous year’s car with no further changes, apart from the 2021 stipulations that will change Rules. It was immediately apparent that the team was slow with handy bastard Nikita Mazepin crashed in turn three and Mick Schumacher finished the race in last place, way behind the pace.

The only American team on the grid confirmed during the pre-season test a few weeks ago that they would not put any effort into developing their 2021 chassis. Aside from a small chassis update that will debut before the second round of the season at Imola, the car stays exactly as it is all year round. Instead, the team is concentrating on developing a car that complies with the new 2022 regulations.

After the terrible run in Bahrain, team boss Günther Steiner admitted that he was not very optimistic about changing anything in 2021.

“I would say if we can bring the fight to Williams, that’s about it,” he said. “You know, and I’m very realistic about that. And we don’t do more than that. “

“I think the best we can get out of the car to prepare our drivers or better prepare them is just bringing them experience and that is what we want to do so that when we have a better car they are ready, and that’s what our plan for this year looks like. “

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It’s great to see a half-hearted performance that represents America in the highest echelons of motorsport. It’s really representative of who we are as a nation. Gene Haas doesn’t care enough about the team by his name to hire someone competent enough to turn the team around. Aside from being a bit entertaining in one hell of a rant on that one episode of Drive to Survive, Steiner has proven himself to be enthusiastically bad for the team, and Haas doesn’t care enough about replacing him with someone who is actually a good one Job could do.

Kudos to Williams, the team has actually shown some interest in turning around and giving themselves the chance to regain some semblance of competitiveness. The fact that Haas has dropped to lower lows than Williams’ 2019 lows is daunting. Does the team care about building a quality effort or just rolling around at the bottom of the grid collecting checks from Mazepin’s father and Ferrari? If the 2022 car doesn’t come damn swinging out of the gate, the answer to that question will be pretty obvious.