Gene Haas Slams Critics, Calls Them “Whiners”

Haas F1 Team owner Gene Haas thinks that the people who have a problem with the way his squad has performed so far in the 2016 are nothing but “whiners”.

His team has gotten off to a flying start with French driver Romain Grosjean securing 6th place in Melbourne, followed by a 5th place finish in Bahrain. However, these results have led to some critics displaying quite a bit of negativity regarding Haas’ Ferrari connection.

“This place is a soap opera,” stated the team’s owner when asked by Autosport to comment on Grosjean saying that other teams are just jealous of their success.

“I think a lot of the teams at the back really don’t understand what competition is. They’re getting maybe a little too fat happy. We never came into this thing to run at the back. We want to compete, and that’s what we’re going to do. If people don’t like that then that’s their problem.”

For Gene Haas, adjusting from the way he does business in NASCAR to how political things are in Formula 1 couldn’t have been very easy, though he’s handled it very well so far and the results do speak for themselves.

“I guess in a sense there are a lot of whiners in F1, that talk about our success…we are here racing. I don’t know what they are complaining about. We are just racing on their turf. If they can’t figure that out they have a problem. There have been a lot of obstacles to get to this point and now we’re here, we’re here. We’re not going away, and they’d better get used to it, and if people don’t like it that’s their problem, not my problem.”

With just two races under their belt, Haas F1 Team sits 5th in the Constructors’ Standings with 18 points, two shy of 4th place Williams and 12 shy of 3rd place Red Bull.

However, the potential to improve even further is still there and it seems that Gene Haas wants to make it clear his team is by no means just a 2nd tier partner to Ferrari – which he tried doing by producing a piece of paper detailing all the parts his team has to make by itself for the two cars.

“These are the parts that you have to make. Have you guys read this? That’s it. The fact we’re doing something that is different, what’s wrong with that? If you’re a driver and you can figure out how to go around a turn faster than the guy next to you, who do you give the credit to? The guy who is slower, or the guy who is faster?”

“We’ve proven we’re well within all the guidelines the FIA publishes, and quite frankly, I don’t know what people are complaining about. We’re here to race, if you want to beat us by complaining that’s just not what it’s about.”

Haas F1 will be on the grid this weekend at the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix where Free Practice sessions are already under way.