s.That keeps Croatia top of the group on seven points, l

Ahead of the U.S. Grand Prix, ESPN and other media outlets sat down with Haas F1 owner Gene Haas and team principal Guenther Steiner at the teams NASCAR base in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Among the topics of discussion were the teams debut season in 2016, whether a full-scaleF1 operation in America is feasible in future seasons and whether Haas has had buyers remorse at any stage this year having entered F1 on the eve of the biggest regulation change in recent times.?Gene, you were in Austin last year for the grand prix -- this year you are actually in it as a competitor! What are the excitement levels like?Haas: It [feels like] another race that we have to go to and do. Im not sure what to expect actually.Steiner: Its the same from my side. We dont know what to expect from, if they will come and cheer us on or not, we dont know. We hope so. Its the first time in 30 years an American team in America, a Formula One team. Lets see how that goes down with the fans. Hopefully good.Haas: Weve had a lot of support. All the races I go to, theres a few Americans, Canadians or English that say, Good for you. But just a few. Not too many!This race isnt like Ferrari going to Monza as Haas is still trying to get established on the grid, but still an American team racing in America. How much of a home race feel is this weekend going to have?Haas: It all comes down to how well we do. The worst thing would be to embarrass ourselves as an American team...Steiner: ...In America!Haas: Maybe we will pull off an Australia where we actually finish top 10, that would be great. Im trying not to have expectations one way or another. You get beat down pretty quick in this business. So if things dont go right, then it was just another race. But if we do phenomenal, were a great team.Steiner: Its difficult to gauge expectations. Its 30 years, a long time. I think we just have to wait to see what the weekend brings. Because if you have expectations that you have hundreds of thousands of fans cheering you on, I think thats unrealistic but then I think we always have expectations. We dont really know.Haas: [to Steiner] Do you think our competitors will give us some slack?Steiner: No... Theyll do the opposite!Haas:?Im sure the American contingency will welcome us whole-heartedly and we just hope we can do a respectable job.There are sweeping regulation changes on the horizon next year, how big a challenge has it been balancing being competitive this year and being ready for 2017?Haas:?The biggest challenge was just putting the whole team together. Even though we had more time than anybody thought possible, just the whole process of starting with the license and the time required to do that and then you wind up having to order equipment and lead times on those and then trying to figure out where your first race is going to be.We originally decided to do everything out of here. That didnt really work out too well so we ended up getting a facility in Banbury. So youre putting all these pieces together and you have this final date that youre constantly building to but everything is changing and I give Guenther a lot of credit for being able to put all those pieces together.One of the things he was able to do was obviously develop a contract with [chassis supplier] Dallara and Ferrari, a substantial amount of the pieces came from them, which was really a great thing because I dont think we would have made it without that help. And also finding the personnel to come work for us. Its a real challenge to find people that want to work for a team that doesnt exist.Given the current state of regulations, was this the best time to enter F1? As opposed to the start of 2017?Haas: I think the way everything worked out probably was the best for us because theres certain windows that open up and close up real quick. You can look at other teams and see theyve taken different approaches. Manor has taken a different approach that was saved by a blink of a signature and they didnt have the time to do everything like we did. So theres penalties for that. The timing of it all, it was all real critical of how it all flowed together and got to where we were.Steiner: I would say its never the right to do anything because then you dont do anything! If you say, Next year, the regulation change ... We dont know, maybe, next year weve got this new car and if there are some problems with it and if you change direction again, then would it be not better to wait another year? And you wait and wait.Sometimes you have to say, Gene wanted to do this. Can we do it? Yes. Is it the ideal time? We dont know because we cannot look into the future. But Gene committed to it and said, Lets do it. And then you just try to do your best this year and next year. If you say, Yeah, but if we wait another, then maybe its better.=But its maybe - we dont know.At some stage, if you want to do something, you need to get it done. Is it the best time? I dont know. I think it was OK because it ended up being OK and now we need to do a good job for next year and were working hard on it. I think we will be OK.When did you begin allocating your resources toward next year?Steiner: This year is difficult to define. I would say we started in February to move to 17 and from the end of May, June, we stopped completely on the 16 development, everything was on 17 except if youve got problems with the car. Then you have to fix it for this year. But nothing to put on to go fast or anything.Youve had some issues this year with [brake suppliers] Brembo and [chassis manufacturer] Dallara. Will there be any changes in your relationship with either of those or your Ferrari technical partnership next year or are you committed to those manufacturers?Haas:?Were always in negotiation. Were always trying to get more. Theres constantly contacts going back and forth for every little detail and I think Ferrari is kind of learning a little bit, too, about exactly what do we offer Ferrari. So theres this going back and forth. Everything is always in Flux.Theyre changing the rules all the time, theyre changing this, weve got to do that and heres our new rules for next year. They didnt really decide on the 17 car until a few months ago.Everything is always changing. If anything, we can say we have a very good relationship with all of our suppliers because we pay our bills. We understand Dallara better, we understand Ferrari better and hopefully they like working with us. So from just a personnel point of view, it all looks positive.The original plan was to do all this from a U.S. base. ?Youve split resources between here and the UK in your first year, is the eventual plan still to do it all in America?Haas: I think we will do more as we take on more CFD. But the cars are so technologically advanced that to develop a gear box would take you 10 years. I dont see how else you would do that. You just cant design one of these things and make it work. Its very, very complex, lots of track time involved, experience involved. How do you get that? You just cant get that by doing it yourself unless youve got 10 years to do it.So were learning. Who knows? Maybe 10 years from now, maybe we will start to build our own gearboxes. Our relationship in NASCAR was very similar. We started off with Hendrick engines and chassis and now were moving on to a Ford relationship. So as time goes on, things do evolve. But I can tell you right now, we would have stumbled very badly without Ferrari and Dallaras help.Do you think its feasible, Guenther, in the long run?Steiner: Its just a question of time. Anything is feasible. But, again, its also a business decision, which is more down to Gene to decide. ... It would not make sense. You would spend double the amount of money. We would have to decide because we would need to learn, we need to employ people, we would have to get people here at a high premium because they would need to relocate.Instead of having a shop of maybe 180-190 people working on the project, all of a sudden we would have -- the smallest F1 team is over 300. And they are doing it in a few years. We would end up with 400 people, 500 people and would we have a lot better result? I wouldnt go forward and say, Yes, Gene, lets do this because we can finish first. No. I think we would go backwards in the beginning. So lets get a little bit more experience. We havent finished our first season. Then see in a few years where it takes us.Haas: The good news is we are going to have a second season!Has this been a successful debut year, in your eyes?Haas: Its been super successful. Weve said this a number of times, If we said [at the start] we would have 28 points by midyear, we all would have taken that one. Midyear has been a little tough on us because we havent really scored any more points. But I think we did better than expected at the beginning, we were less than happy with what happened in the midseason but we have four more races. We have the latest aero package. So were optimistic.Liberty Media have taken control of Formula One, an American-based group. Theyve said they will keep F1 based in Europe but do you think they can leverage the sport better in America?Haas:?I would think that every team owner would be very optimistic that theyre going to bring us more money for less work. But I doubt it! The honeymoon is on and well see how it all works out.Im sure the previous Formula One owners are hoping that the new guys will bring in lots of new revenue ideas and the new owners are saying, Were going to make a lot of money out of this deal. You have different opposing views. Everyone wants more money, lets face it. The teams want more money but Im sure that the new owners are going to be thinking about, How can we pay the team owners less money [laughs]But is there a fanbase here that hasnt been reached, that could be?Haas: Oh, theres a huge number of fans in the United States that dont know about Formula One. How you reach them, I dont know. I dont really know how you do that. I think all the racing venues are struggling with that one. Theyre looking for their new fan base. They know that this is ultimately an entertainment show and they have to have a good product.Ive been in Formula One only for only a few years now. Its pretty exciting even though it reminds me a little bit, Im not a big baseball fan, but theres a lot of intricacies that are going on in Formula One that are completely different than NASCAR in terms of when the race starts and the excitement level in Formula One is pretty intense all the way from qualifying to race day. Where in NASCAR, that intensity really only happens in the last 25 laps.Speaking of money and negotiations, youve previously said theres no deal with Bernie Ecclestone in terms of prize money for next year. Has that changed at all?Haas:?Bernie doesnt negotiate! There is the Concorde Agreement which we race under and thats all spelled out in that agreement about how teams are paid. Any monies that we do get would come directly from that agreement.So nothing has really changed?Haas:?No. We havent got anything, not any reimbursement from Formula One. But I think Bernie once said, We didnt ask these guys to show up and if they want to race here, thats their problem.When you started this, you talked about potential new business for Haas Automation. Have you had much?Haas: The market were in is difficult. The amount of recognition that we get is pretty phenomenal. From people who know who we are and what we do is probably double or triple. There was one show in Paris or somewhere like that and usually you get 1,000 or 2,000 leads. It went to 10,000 leads. From a standpoint of recognition, its been pretty phenomenal.Your drivers for next year...Haas:?We have two...Do you know who they are?Haas:?Yes we do.Romain and Esteban?Haas:?I cant tell you that. At the moment, theres no big incentive to finalize that list. I think its well-known that Grosjean has a contract for next year. Gutierrez, were just in negotiations. Gutierrez is a Ferrari reserve driver, so a lot of those negotiations go back and forth with Ferrari.Have you had interest from other drivers given your performance?Haas:?I think theres always some phone calls here and there but I think nothing was more than general interest.Steiner:?This year its pretty flat with Jenson [Button] leaving and [Felipe] Massa, two senior drivers. The market is not an easy market. But were OK. Well have two drivers. Well be happy. Well be fine.How valuable has Grosjean been to develop the car?Steiner: I think what he gave us is the confidence of where the car is. As much as he sometimes complains about the car, he knows what the car needs to do. He doesnt tell you to make you happy. He tells you with his experience, the car is doing this, that or the other. Or it isnt right or its right. So were confident. Hes one of the crucial elements of our success here this year.Have you felt any more pressure or less pressure to have an American driver?Haas:?We get a lot of people that would like to see us to, say, become the American team. Wed like to have people throw money at us, too [laughs].Steiner:?Wed all like a lot of things. Somebody has to pay for it.Haas: If we had to do everything American, we wouldnt have enough money or enough time for anything. Were here really to build a race team. If an American driver came along to have the pedigree to do this, yeah, we would seriously consider that. But at the moment, there arent any F1 drivers. Youre always looking for experience.Its a drivers market right now because weve lost two very experienced drivers and the newcomers really dont have much experiences. Theres lots of drivers out there but you take that chance of the unknown. Theres a lot of people that can compete well in GP3 and GP2. They qualify well but racing in Formula One is a whole different sport.Have you thought about fielding a team in GP2 or GP3?Haas: If they start throwing money at us! I cant find those money throwers. As wonderful as Americans are, they are pretty tight, too...Gene, 17 races in, are you glad you did this? A lot of people doubted you would never show up, said you were throwing your money away... Has it been what you thought it would be?Haas: Yeah. It brings a lot of intense focus on racing and Ive always said that the racing and my business kind of going hand-in-hand in the sense it kind of inspires you to want to perform better, not only in the racing part but the business part of it. It was the right thing to do.The timing seemed perfect. I have a lot of experienced people... I have Guenther who, as you know, is a little bit crazy in the sense he wants to go do this [laughs]. Time-wise, I cant spend that much time... I think Ive actually made it to over half the races. That is a huge amount of time to get to these races. Its just a phenomenal burden to do Formula One with all that flying and jet lag.Actually, Im kind of surprised another American didnt do it. I kind of scratch my head, theres so many Americans that profess to love racing. Im kind of surprised another American didnt jump into this arena and say, I can do that.Has there been a moment this year youve had buyers remorse?Haas:?Theres some things we could have done better, but those were unknown. Actually, I never had any regrets. This seems like the perfect thing to do. Ive done NASCAR for 15, 16 years now and this just seems like a natural progression of moving up the chain to get to the highest level.NASCAR is a high level, dont get me wrong. But Im not sure where you go after Formula One. The only other thing left would be the Indy 500 or Le Mans or something like that. So theres always another goal. But you have to have goals or you just stop. 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He totaled 41 tackles and three interceptions while starting all but four of the 13 games he played last season. KRAKOW, Poland -- Its a tough life on the road for new FIFA member Kosovo.Sundays 3-0 loss to Ukraine in a Group I game staged in Poland meant the Kosovans have conceded nine goals this week at neutral venues.Fresh off a 6-0 home loss to Croatia which was actually played in Albania because Kosovo still doesnt have a certified stadium, Kosovo had to face Ukraine in Poland because the Ukrainian government doesnt recognize the tiny Balkan nations independence.Second-best for most of the game, Kosovo nevertheless kept the margin to 1-0 until the 81st minute, when Andriy Yarmolenko scored one goal, then set up another, to end a five-game winless run for Ukraine. The Dynamo Kiev winger has scored in all three of Ukraines games so far in World Cup qualifying as the team tries to rebuild after losing all its games at the European Championship.There had been fears of crowd trouble but the game appeared to pass off peacefully.Ukraine took the lead thanks to Artem Kravets deflected first-half goal. Kosovo could have taken something from the game, with Ukraine goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov coming close to an own-goal in the 61st before a Kosovan shot rattled the crossbar minutes later.Ukraine was angered by having three close penalty appeals turned down, but nerves were calmed when Yarmolenko controlled a cross from substitute Alexander Karavayev and slotted it into the net. Soon after, he set up the third goal for Ruslan Rotan, who had seen an earlier strike ruled out because offside players were interfering with play.---FINLAND 0, CROATIA 1Mario Mandzukic hasnt had much luck in front of goal for Juventus this season, but he cant stop scoring for his country.ddddddddddddresh off a hat trick against Kosovo, the Croatia star scored the only goal of the game in Finland with a simple finish from point-blank range after Finnish goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky failed to deal with Andrej Kramarics cross.That keeps Croatia top of the group on seven points, level with Iceland and two ahead of Ukraine. Only the group winner qualifies automatically for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.Finland is level with Kosovo at the bottom of the group on one point.---ICELAND 2, TURKEY 0After Icelands impressive run at the European Championship, the success keeps coming.Turkey is the latest victim, beaten 2-0 in Iceland thanks to two goals shortly before halftime. The first was an own-goal from center-back Omer Toprak before Iceland forward Alfred Finnbogason scored with a volley 90 seconds later, hitting the back of the net for his third international game in succession.Iceland went out to France in the Euro 2016 quarterfinals. It reached the playoffs in 2014 World Cup qualification, losing to Croatia, which may prove its toughest opponent in the current qualifying campaign too.Coach Fatih Terims Turkey, meanwhile, now has just one win from its last seven games, continuing a miserable year which also included a group stage exit at the European Championship.Turkey has two points in Group I after three matches. ' ' '