Romain Grosjean believes his Haas F1 Team now have the capacity to build their own cars in the future but acknowledges their desire to keep the current model in place.
Currently, the American outfit have their chassis supplied by Dallara, whilst Scuderia Ferrari provide a number of components that the FIA do not mandate be designed in-house, but Grosjean believes everything is in place for Haas to build a whole car without the need to rely on others.
“For now, we’re doing the model we’re doing,” said Grosjean to Autosport. “What’s the future is like, I don’t know. We’ve got a factory ready in Kannapolis, there is a whole factory ready to have a Formula 1 team and build a car.
“If you have to develop it all yourself, you cannot do it the first year, the cars are so complex and it’s just so difficult. If we managed to be just behind Ferrari, that [would be] good enough, I’m happy with that.”
Grosjean admitted that working with Ferrari during their rookie season was a fantastic experience for him, and said that without the Italian outfit’s backing, they would not have had the success in 2016 that saw him score twenty-nine points.
“It’s a great experience to work with Ferrari and I’ve got to know the engineers and the system,” added Grosjean. “We’re using most of their parts and it’s interesting to see what they’re working on and how I can help with my level, the way they operate, with the experience I’ve got.
“We are very happy and we wouldn’t be where we are with these points without their help.”
