Gene Haas: 'I was kind of naive' about F1
Gene Haas admits he underestimated the complexity of Formula One and jumped in "without fully understanding" the sport.
Haas' first winter of testing has been mixed, with impressive mileage on week one dampened by a string of reliability issues this week. The debuting team struggle with the complexed brake-by-wire system on Thursday, with Romain Grosjean triggering three red flags through various off-track moments.
Haas admits the team's recent setbacks have made him realise the depth of the challenges in F1.
Asked how F1 compared to NASCAR, where his team has won a championship, Haas replied: "This isn't North Carolina, I've come to realise that! The complexity of the cars and the engines and what they're doing with them is way beyond anything I ever expected. I think the technical aspects of these cars is fascinating, I think the engineers - especially the engineers that are working them and designing them - it's a real challenge to get these cars to do that. So I think it's a challenge on the one hand.
"On the other hand, I don't think the fans really understand how complex it is. Even I didn't know. I was kind of naive too about what goes in to make one of these cars run. It is a very complex process, it is a complex car, it's a complex way to race cars, and right now, it's a little bit overwhelming to be honest with you."
Haas used the brakes to illustrate his point, pointing out that the lofty expectations some have attributed to him his team are unrealistic as it finds its feet in the sport early this season.
"A simple thing like brakes, you can't just go out there and stop on your brakes. You have to basically heat up your brakes to the exact right temperature to get them to work and if they're not at the right temperature they won't work. If you don't do that right you can actually overheat them and theres all sorts of catastrophic things that can happen if you don't do it perfectly.
"We jumped in with both feet without fully understanding it but I'm not sure how else you learn by unless you kind of jump in and test the waters. So I think if people were expecting us to go out in the first few races and suddenly compete with the big boys I think that wasn't realistic."