Haas uneasy about fielding Ferrari F1 juniors in race seats

Gene Haas is uneasy about the idea of fielding a junior driver from another Formula 1 team, preferring to hire the best racer possible in order to move up the constructors' championship and net a greater prize money haul.

Haas F1 Team currently sits seventh in the teams' standings with drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, both of whom have already been confirmed for 2018.

Given its links with Ferrari, Haas had been tipped to take on either Charles Leclerc or Antonio Giovinazzi in the future, both of whom are part of the Italian marque's junior programme and have enjoyed practice outings for the American team in the past.

However, Haas is uneasy about the idea, believing it would not be commercially-sound to make taking on juniors a priority.

"I don’t think we'd rule it out, but from a business mode, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense," Haas said.

"There’s no secret that it costs $60 million to put a car on the track for the season, and if someone gives you a driver, not just from Ferrari, from anybody, and they’re going to pay you five or six million dollars, there’s $55m deficit there somewhere.

"So it doesn’t really make sense to want to run, let’s say, a partner or a paid driver for compensation. I think our point of view has always been that we need to obtain points and that’s how we generate moving forward and making money, so that’s our business model.

"I think Ferrari respects that and based on that, if there’s some mutual agreement that we could come to, we probably would be more open to that."