Gene Haas believes his new Formula 1 team has had too much time on his hands ahead of its debut this season.
In April 2014 the FIA confirmed Haas had been granted an entry for the ’15 season, only for the American to take up an option to defer for a year.
By the time the car finally hits the track in pre-season testing at Barcelona next month, it will have been 22 months in the making.
Unlike previous start-up teams, Haas wanted to make sure his organisation hits the ground running, rather than limping along at the back of the grid.
Asked by Autosport about the team’s preparations, Haas said: “We had too much time, actually.
“We probably had maybe three months more than what we really needed.
“But that provided us with the time to look at all the things we needed to order in, things like the technical trailers – it takes almost a year to build them all.
“That time gave us a benefit you don’t normally get.
“For many people, when they go into Formula 1 they buy another team with all the infrastructure already in place.
“But we had none of that. We had to start everything from scratch and I think that’s what killed so many of the other start-up teams.
“They had six months to go Formula 1 racing which, even now, when I look at it, that’s absurd.
“Looking back I really don’t think we would have been ready if we had tried to enter for last season.
“We could have taken over Caterham or Manor, something like that, but then we would have been chasing the eight ball.”
Aside from its primary facility in Kannapolis, Haas has also taken over Manor’s old factory in Banbury.
Work in converting it for Haas’s needs was only completed towards the end of last year.
“We bought that a year ago, and now we finally have it online,” added Haas.
“The first thing we did when we got there was remodel it because Manor had been in there, and they built their entire car.
“They had a supercomputer, CFD, modelling. We spent probably six months just throwing out all the confusion. It was incredible what they did there.
“We’re basically going to use it to store our haulers, to do CFD work, assemble, disassemble cars. That’s its main purpose.
“We will only be doing a quarter of what Manor did there, but it’s come along very nicely.”
