I am very interested in the possible prospects for Haas in F1 next year as a new team. I am having a very hard time trying to decide how competitive they could be, so I thought maybe it would help to look at other new teams from the (kinda) recent past to see how they got on in their first year. I will start with Sauber, then every new team since.

Sauber - 1993
Points on debut for JJ Lehto. Lehto and Karl Wendlinger enjoyed a very competitive car, qualifying 5th several times and running very strongly indeed in many races. It was very impressive though unreliability (remember that?) cost them points, and they failed to make the podium.

Simtek - 1994
Nick Wirth's team made a pretty tidy debut when the car ran ok. I always thought Manor/Marussia were very similar to Simtek, especially when they started in 2010. There was the Nick Wirth involvement, some plucky performances, and even having to taste tragedy (if it's ok to say that). Anyway a best finish of 9th in season 1, and far outperforming Pacific, whilst at times getting amongst the tail end of the established teams.

Pacific Grand Prix (no, not the race that curiously also ran in both the years this team existed) - 1994
Possibly my favourite ever team. I'm so fond of them. But in reality a shocking first attempt. Hopes of a few points later in the season proved to be a pipe dream as they didn't even finish a race - not even a single one - and this was when they actually qualified, which was as rare as a driver spinning into gravel into retirement today. The car was little more than a F3000 car, with extremely square looking wings, and a by then poor Ilmor engine.

Forti - 1995
No better than Pacific's 1994 for pace, and they seemed (kinda unfairly imo) a bit of a laughing stock, mainly due to their notorious pay-driver Pedro Diniz, who was much derided in his early years but turned out to be pretty good at times. The car was much better than Pacific as it was actually fairly reliable, and also ended up overtaking them for pace by the end of the season, culminating in an oh-so-close 7th place in the season finale at Adelaide. Huge bonus points for that cracking bright yellow colour scheme.

Stewart Grand Prix - 1997
Now this actually looks quite similar to Haas when I think about it. Just like Haas, Jackie had spent a whole year in preparation for this, and signed a good engine deal (like Haas) and made a very good signing for lead driver with a fairly decent guy in the second seat, just like Haas (assuming Gutierrez gets the 2nd seat). The result was a very promising 11th on the grid on debut, followed by starting 5th in Argentina, and sensationally almost grabbing pole in Canada. This was just after finishing in an amazing 2nd place at Monaco, which had Jackie in tears of joy. Other highlights included starting 5th and 6th in Austria. A very impressive first season indeed.

Lola - 1997
Probably the most infamous of them all. Well documented that they ran in Australian qualifying in 97 and managed to get one of their cars within 12sec off pole. They were never seen again...

Do B.A.R. count? - 1999
Well there was that... unique colour scheme, falling out with the FIA over it, then the bold. arrogant, Helmut-Marko-like declarations (i.e. winning their first race), Villeneuve not even finishing a race until Belgium, Jacques' negative attitude in general, and [I]not scoring any points whatsoever and finishing dead last in the constructors[I]. So no it didn't go well. The only saving grace was that with a good Villeneuve in the car, the actual pace was very decent on the most part.

Toyota - 2002
Another team that deferred their entry an entire year so they could prepare (sensing a trend here?). As I remember, they seemed to spend their time insisting they would be at the back of the grid. I indeed expected them to be not much better than Minardi and probably not scoring any points. Only for them to do so at the first race, while also qualifying a very solid 14th and 16th - already much higher than I'd expected. Salo then went on to qualify in the top 10 as often as not, capping a good debut season.

Super (duper) Aguri - 2006
Expected to start around 6 or 7 seconds off the pace, it was immediately about 2 better than that. Bonus points for initially using the distinctive Arrows chassis from 2002! Considering the circumstances about their startup I think they were impressive indeed, able to mix it with Toro Rossos and Midland Spykers as the season went on, culminating in a superb race in Brazil with 7th and 9th fastest laps. In hindsight I think a lot of it was from receiving technical support from Honda, effectively running as a sort of B team (again, sensing something in common here, hint hint?)

Lotus F1/Caterham, Virgin/Marussia/Manor and Campos Meta/Hispania/HRT - 2010
Three new teams for 2010 slapped together on the promise of a budget cap. Because Super Aguri were able to mix it with established tail enders from time to time, I expected the same from 2010's new teams. In reality, they were a long way off and the gap didn't close over the season much.

Caterham initially looked like the team most likely going somewhere while in my opinion over the first 3 years, I always thought Marussia would be the ones to go under if anyone did (amazing to think how it turned out eh?!!) Caterham announced Renault engines, technical partnerships etc and indeed got closer in 2011, though maybe we hoped for a little more/ 2012 saw another big step in closing the performance gap. Unfortunately so had everyone else in an unusually strong in depth season. It was 2013 that saw things unravel imo and Tony Fernandes lost interest and that was that.

HRT were an extreme skeleton crew who I nevertheless had respect for. They were unfairly derided imo but I believed in them and their potential if they could develop themselves. Unfortunately they had to make this big whole thing about moving everything to Spain, or out of Spain (can't remember) rather than concentrating on the basics, resulting in them going bust.

I've said plenty about Manor but I can't say enough how much I respect these guys after everything they've been through. The way they live within their means, are so efficient and prudent with what they have, brave the constant ridicule and never give up, surpassing even my own expectations to rise from the ashes. Now they have Mercedes engines, which look like they will be 2016 spec - WOW!!



Maybe this should be in the History thread but I thought it would be nice to share my thoughts.