Speaking at the unveiling of their first F1 driver, Gene Haas, owner of HAAS F1 has spoken out saying that NASCAR is like a dictatorship compared to the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile.
Haas comes from a NASCAR background having establised a team in 2002 and the 62-year-old believes that the FIA is a lot more democratic that how NASCAR deals with their series.
“NASCAR is more like a dictatorship,” Haas said. “They basically say, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ and while they listen to your input, they ultimately make all the decisions. In Formula One, they have these strategy sessions where anyone can throw out any idea you want and then they vote on it. That’s fundamentally different than NASCAR.”
While it seems that there is alway drama in Formula 1, Haas beleives that it is all part of package, “There’s a lot of drama,” he said. “Let me tell you, last year, they thought three teams were going to drop out, but the reality is that only Caterham dropped out. So there’s always this thing where two or three teams say they are going to drop out but they always seem to show up the next year. They always seem to be racing.”
Haas also added that F1 is more transparent than NASCAR in its organisation due to the public conversation generated in the paddock.
“They have these strategy meetings and they throw out all these outrageous things in those meetings, and the media immediately picks them up as fact,” Haas said. “These are just ideas people tossed out there. Whether it will or won’t make it to the next level is very remote.
“But there’s certainly a lot of drama in Formula One. I think there’s more drama in Formula One than there is in NASCAR. But still, it’s Formula One. It’s the ultimate motorsport.”
