Formula 1 race director Charlie Whiting commented on the improvements of Haas in regard to their partnership with Ferrari.
Coming into the 2018 Formula 1 season, the Haas team had two years of Formula 1 experience under their belts in the 2016 season and the 2017 season. In both of those seasons, the team finished in 8th place in the constructor standings.
Also in both of those seasons, none of the team’s drivers finished a race in a position higher than 5th place. So when the team’s two drivers, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, opened up the 2018 season by qualifying in 6th and 7th place, respectively, in the Australian Grand Prix, many teams were caught off guard.
Magnussen and Grosjean ended up starting the race in 5th and 6th place, respectively, due to the fact that Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull Racing was issued a penalty and was forced to give up his 5th place starting spot. He was forced to start the race in 8th.
On the first turn of the first lap of the race, Magnussen made quick work of Red Bull Racing’s other driver, Max Verstappen, for 4th place. After Verstappen spun out a few laps later, Grosjean found himself in the top 5 in 5th.
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While both Magnussen and Grosjean were forced to retire from the race as a result of wheel issues they had following their pit stops, the overall speed of the Haas team set off some alarms around the paddock to the point where several teams called for an investigation into the partnership between Haas and Ferrari.
After all, two top 5 finishes in one race for a team with no finishes higher than 5th through two full seasons would have been a surprise. Plus, Haas would have been in the top 3 — likely in 2nd place, in fact — in the constructor standings had Magnussen and Grosjean managed to finish the race in 4th and 5th place.
However, Formula 1 race director Charlie Whiting has made clear that what has gone on between Haas and Ferrari has been completely legal, according to WTF1.
"“We know exactly what’s going on between Haas and Ferrari, which is completely legal. Last year we had one team expressing some concerns but we have not seen anything that concerns us at the moment.”"
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Is Charlie Whiting correct? Is there truly no reason for concern in regard to the partnership between Haas and Ferrari? Is everything that has gone on between the two teams completely legal? This will be an interesting situation to monitor moving forward regardless.