Guenther Steiner hinted at a possible Haas plan to make a move for Logan Sargeant in the future – before the American racer has even made his Formula 1 debut.
Having firmly established themselves on the F1 grid, Haas are on the up. They survived Covid despite having an uncomfortably small budget compared to the rest of their competitors and endured a couple of horrible seasons in which they were not at all competitive.
But the 2022 campaign brought signs of recovery with more promising results and an eight-placed finish. They will hope to keep progressing, especially after bolstering their spending power thanks to a huge new sponsorship deal with US-based money transfer firm MoneyGram.
What is missing for America's F1 team is a home-grown driver. US racers have been scarce in recent years and, when Sargeant makes his debut with Williams this year, he will be the first American to take to the F1 race track in the whole time Haas have been in the sport.
Even though he is yet to prove how he will adapt to the sport, Haas' desire to field an American racer means Sargeant is on Steiner's future wishlist for drivers. "Of course I would like to see an American driver with us," he told Texas TV station KVUE.
"I think what we need to see is the development of an American driver, which is very difficult. We had the last two years ago with two rookies, last year with one inexperienced driver. And we as a team are still very young.
"For us at the moment there is more performance to be gained for the team to make it better, to get ready, because at the moment there is no American driver with experience in F1. Therefore, we decided not to take an American again.
"There is now an American driver [Sargeant] who is going to gain experience and he needs all the support he can get at the moment. And I don't think at the moment it's there.
"So, hopefully it comes, because I wish that he makes experience and then once he has made experience, he comes to us, the American team. How about that?"
