Mercedes domination has "killed" F1 - Gene Haas

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Mercedes domination has "killed" F1 - Haas

Gene Haas says predictability of results is "boring"

Ewan Gale

Saturday 27 February 2021 17:58

Haas Formula 1 team owner Gene Haas believes Formula 1 has been "killed" by Mercedes' domination in the turbo-Hybrid era.

The American team has languished at the rear of the field in recent years, with last season's struggles not helped by Ferrari's under-performing power unit.

With the Mercedes engine providing the platform for the German manufacturer's monopoly over the sport in the turbo-Hybrid era, Haas believes the predictability of results has damaged the sport.

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"They [Mercedes] built an extremely high performance, high fuel efficiency, durable engine that no other team’s been able to come close to," Haas told Racer.

“To me, it’s really killed what Formula 1’s all about. More power to Mercedes for being able to dominate so much of the thing, but who wants to go to a race when you know who’s going to win every friggin’ race that’s out there? That just gets boring.”

Haas initially started its time in F1 strongly, with points finishes courtesy of Romain Grosjean in its first two races showing promise for the American outfit.

But after turbulent campaigns in each of the last two seasons, Haas has pinned blame on Ferrari, although acknowledged other engine manufacturers were playing catch up to Mercedes as well.

"I think up until 2019 we were really doing very well, and we had plenty of horsepower and the cars were very competitive," he added.

"But then we wound up doing fuel mileage races where we actually had to do a lot of lift and coasting, so that really hurt us.

"Then in 2019, we were down on horsepower considerably compared to the Ferrari cars, and that hurt. We did really well in qualifying, but when the race came, our horsepower was just off.

"Then in 2020 when Ferrari had a reduction in their horsepower, it was pretty obvious that all of the Ferrari engine cars had horsepower deficits compared to Mercedes, Honda and Renault.

"Our boat’s tied to the Ferrari ship, so when they’re going slow we’re going even slower – I don’t think there’s much you can do about that.

"We have no control over the parts that we obtain from Ferrari. We have faith that Ferrari can fix the problem, and not only does Ferrari have this problem, but so does Honda and Renault – everyone’s at a deficit to the Mercedes engine."