Haas, Komatsu try out team’s F1 cars at Goodwood

It’s not each day that the proprietor of a sports activities staff will get to pattern what their group does. Robert Kraft received’t be lining up in a New England Patriots pre-season recreation any time quickly.

But motorsport can supply such a possibility, in a means – one which Gene Haas grabbed with each palms on Friday. He, and his Formulation 1 staff, had been showing on the annual Goodwood Competition of Pace motoring and motorsport extravaganza for the primary time, and to mark the event, Haas received behind the wheel of a VF-23 for a run up the long-lasting hillclimb.

The run was the brainchild of staff principal Ayao Komatsu, who drove earlier than Haas on Thursday alongside Toyota manufacturing unit driver Kazuki Nakajima.

“When Ayao first requested me about driving right here at Goodwood, it appeared like an terrible lot of labor only for an tour up a hill,” mentioned Haas. “I didn’t know in regards to the Competition of Pace beforehand actually, but it surely was intriguing to me, and now I perceive why so many followers come right here.

“It’s the occasion to see so many alternative automobiles – previous and new, not solely Formulation 1 automobiles – so it actually does supply a possibility for followers to see automobiles that they’ve solely seen on TV or within the films. I’m liking the automobiles from the ’40s and ’50s as a result of it’s superb that these groups had been making automobiles that went 150mph with the essential instruments that they had in comparison with now.”

The run up the hill gave Haas a brand new perspective of what he’s been backing for the final decade. However whereas driving an F1 automotive is a feat in itself, Haas had one other problem to cope with. Grand Prix automobiles are designed to do one factor: go quick. At Goodwood, that’s one factor he wasn’t doing.

“My first impression of being within the Formulation 1 automotive was that it’s very tight in there,” he mentioned. “There are a whole lot of nuances you must be taught in regards to the clutch, shifting, and there are 1,000,000 issues occurring.

“The toughest factor to do although is to attempt to drive a really quick automotive at a really gradual pace.”

Haas F1’s 10-year celebrations proceed over the remainder of the weekend, with race drivers Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman each set to seem on Saturday and Sunday.

CLICK HERE to stream the Goodwood Competition of Pace LIVE, or watch on the RACER+ app.