Auto News 5

American entrepreneur Gene Haas is currently busy putting together his Formula 1 team, which will operate with close assistance from Ferrari.

Haas, also the co-owner of the Stewart-Haas Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup team, recently talked to CNN about Haas F1 Team, which will be based near Kannapolis, North Carolina.

Haas F1 Team will become the first new outfit to join the grid since the FIA accepted the entries of three start-up outfits in 2010: Caterham, Marussia and HRT. The Spanish team disappeared at the end of 2012, while the other two are struggling financially.

Gene Haas is perfectly aware that the road to F1 is not easy.

“I think in the first five years it's just surviving. I don't have any expectations of grandeur that we're going to go out there and win championships. If we could even win one race in five races that'd be a tremendous success,” Haas told CNN.

“Just the association of being with Formula 1 basically takes our brand from nobody to in the stratosphere. Sooner or later we'll march up. I'm not expecting to beat anybody, just maybe beat the guys at the back.”

The owner of Haas Automation thinks that the 2010 new teams all made mistakes in the early stages of their entries into F1, and his organization have therefore learned what not to do.

“I think that the biggest problem they had is trying to get to the grid so fast they wound up having to take on partnerships that maybe weren't thoroughly thought out and wound up making a lot of mistakes,” Haas told CNN.

“Inevitably they didn't have the resources or the cars weren't properly put together because they rushed things.”

Marco Mattiacci (Ferrari) and Gene Haas in Montreal, Canada. (Photo: WRi2)

Haas F1 Team will have the assistance from Ferrari.

“Ferrari wanted to go beyond being just an engine supplier and they were going to help us with the basic structures of the car,” Gene Haas declared.

"It's an honour to have Ferrari help us in this way and we take all the help they can give us because you can't really get better than Ferrari."

From GMM

F1's grid may have shrunk to just 18 cars by the time of the US grand prix next weekend.

Caterham's troubles - with administrators locking the green cars inside the Leafield factory amid an unseemly spat with former owner Tony Fernandes - are now well documented.

But authoritative publications are now claiming that the similarly struggling backmarker Marussia, rocked recently by Jules Bianchi's life-threatening Suzuka crash, is also in danger of having its engines silenced.

Michael Schmidt, the highly respected correspondent for Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, claims the team has been living "hand to mouth" since August's Belgian grand prix, where Max Chilton almost sat out the race due to "contractual issues".

"We have now learned that another cash injection is required so that the team can make the trip to Austin and Sao Paulo," Michael Schmidt said. "This is happening while the owner Andrey Cheglakov wants to sell."

Russia's Championat and Germany's Auto Bild are reporting similarly, adding that a deadline is looming for Marussia to make overdue payments to engine supplier Ferrari.

And Italian reports suggest that Ferrari has already ceased to supply technical and installation information about the customer engine for 2015.

Writing in Switzerland's Blick, veteran journalist Roger Benoit agreed that the situation at Caterham and Marussia could mean only 18 cars line up on the Austin grid.

Photo: Circuit of the Americas

NHTSA botched its effort to inform the public about a potentially lethal airbag defect, directing 8 million consumers to an inoperable website and leaving millions of others unsure as to whether their cars were even at risk.

Toyota said today it had sold some of its shares in Tesla Motors but that it would continue to study possible cooperation with the California electric car maker in the future.

Toyota has sold some of its shares in Tesla Motors, the Nikkei financial newspaper reported.

GM Financial disclosed Thursday it is being investigated by 'state attorneys general and other governmental offices' in connection with subprime auto loans and the sale of subprime auto loans in the form of asset-backed securities.

Toyota's Los Angeles-based U.S. advertising agency is following its longtime client to Dallas in a bid to prolong their nearly 40-year relationship.

AutoNation will become title sponsor of a new college football bowl game that will raise money for breast cancer research.

Edmunds.com has pulled a YouTube ad campaign that spoofed price haggling but that dealers found offensive.

Powertrain component supplier Dana reported net income of $90 million for the third quarter, a 32 percent improvement from the $68 million in the same period a year earlier.

The next-generation Jeep Wrangler will continue to be a body-on-frame vehicle and won't switch to unibody construction, Automotive News has learned.

FCA has added a new model for the Mexican market's 2015 model year: the RAM 700. This small pick-up is a rebadged Fiat Strada Adventure and is imported from Brazil.

Dana has reported third quarter net income up 32% to US$90m, compared to US$68m in the same period last year.

Federal-Mogul has posted a third quarter loss of US$18m based on net sales of US$1.87bn, up 11% on a continuing operations basis.

Valeo has unveiled third quarter sales up 10% to EUR3.07bn (US$3.9bn), with original equipment sales advancing 13%.

Autoliv posted a surprise fall in third quarter earnings and lowered its outlook for 2014 sales growth while saying it has seen positive effects on its business in the wake of recent issues with Japanese parts maker Takata's air bags.

Ping goes the inbox. A welcome new email comes from our colleagues at JATO Dynamics with the latest eight-month YTD European PHEV sales data.

Audi is recalling nearly 102,000 A4 sedans in the United States to fix a software glitch that may prevent front airbags from deploying in a crash.

Audi will recall 850,000 A4 models worldwide due to airbag problem that could prevent front airbags from deploying. Audi said its faulty airbags are not made by Takata, which is at the center of a growing number of U.S. airbag recalls.

News 24 Oct, 2014

Spy shots of the huge six-door Mercedes S600 Pullman have emerged and there's even an armoured version expected