Haas responds to suggestion of selling F1 team

Haas team owner Gene Haas has clarified that he is not interestedin selling his Formula 1 team to an interested buyer. Earlier thisweek, the Kannapolis-based outfit confirmed that Guenther Steinerwould not return to the squad for the new season. Steiner held theTeam Principal role since the team's inception but has now beenreplaced by Ayao Komatsu. Haas has endured poor results over thelast number of years, finishing bottom of the Constructors'Championship twice in the previous three seasons. Following thenews of Steiner's departure, Haas has reaffirmed his commitment toF1 amid suggestions that he could place the team up for sale andexit the sport. “I didn’t get into F1 to sell [the team],” GeneHaas told Formula1.com . “I did it because I wanted to race.Guenther had the same perspective. “We’re not here to cash out, wewant to race and be competitive. If you look at any team,historically, they have had a lot of good years and a lot of badyears. “Surviving is one of the characteristics of getting better.As long as you can survive, you always have another year to proveyour worthiness. “This is a big change. Losing Guenther is going tocause the team to have to focus on other aspects. We will hopefullycome out better for it.” Improving spending effectiveness Since theinjection of investment from MoneyGram, Haas has been able to spendclose to the sport's strictly enforced budget cap. Haasacknowledged that it must improve the effectiveness of itsexpenditure having been rooted to the rear of the field in recentyears. “There is a perception we spend a lot less money; we’reusually within $10m of the budget limit,” he said. “I just think wedon’t do a very good job of spending that money. A lot of teamshave had previous investments in their infrastructure, buildings,equipment and personnel. “Our model was to outsource a lot of that.We spend a lot of money. We haven’t exceeded the cap but we’repretty darn close to it. “I just don’t think we’re doing a verygood job of spending it in the most effective way.”