Only two dates passed in the World Cup for the first controversy within Formula 1 to be unleashed. This time, the protagonists are the Alpine and McLaren teams, who decided to file a formal complaint with the FIA with the aim of investigating the relationship between Ferrari and Haas.
This episode came after the end of the first race of the season played on the Bahrain international circuit, where the US team, with Kevin Magnussen at the helm, finished fifth with 10 points in the overall standings.
The fact that the Dane ended up at the top of the standings led the directors of the other two teams in question to suspect that the relationship between his rival and Maranello's is not just that of sharing engines.
After seeing this result, the Haas VF-22 car was branded as a “white Ferrari”, a term used to argue that the engine would not be just what the Italian team supplied the North American team.
“First of all, I want to make it clear that we are very focused on our own car, so I can't talk specifically about Haas and Ferrari. But it is no secret that, in general, these relations that exist within the regulation, as they are established, worry us. Our view is that in the future we must make F1 a championship between 10, 11 or 12 real manufacturers,” said Andreas Seidl, head of McLaren, in a statement to Formula1News.
“From our point of view, F1 should be a championship with teams that can only share the power unit and the gearbox. The rest has to be done”, continued the manager. He added: “We know that at the moment we go further, there is clearly a change or transfer of intellectual property, which directly modifies the performance of the car. And that's not what F1″ should be.
“That is why we are in dialogue with the FIA and I hope that at some point we will take a step forward. Because understanding that control, or rather, setting a limit, is also a task. That's why the easiest and most effective way to move forward is to have a clear limit on what can be shared,” he said.
On that first performance, in which Haas has scored triple the points that in the last two seasons together, Otmar Szafnauer, from Alpine, also stated on F1 TV: “The concern is that those who share wind tunnels can have coffee together”.
Hearing the criticism, Haas director Guenther Steiner soon came out to the crossroads: “Accusations have always existed and will always exist. If we are good they call our car 'White Ferrari'. If we're bad, then they don't say anything. If you work hard you earn envy, while pity is free. So if the others are green with envy, that means we did a very good job,” he said.
The truth is that after the two Grand Prix so far, the Haas team is in the fifth step of the constructors' ranking, behind only the big three (Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull) and Alpine.
This brings to mind what happened two seasons ago with Racing Point, a team that today changed its name to Aston Martin. At that time, the squad shared engines with Mercedes — the undisputed leaders of the division in recent years — and seeing the good level of the team several teams called them “Pink Mercedes” because of their color. At that time, the FIA determined a penalty for the team owned by Lawrence Stroll.
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