Report: Haas F1 Team has chosen its chief designer - MotorSportsTalk

Haas F1 team has reportedly found the man that will lead the design of its new machines.

Autosport reports that Rob Taylor, ex-chief designer at Red Bull and its predecessor, Jaguar, will take on the same role for the American-based team.

Taylor designed Jaguar’s final two cars for the 2003 and 2004 seasons and then, following the energy drink giant’s purchase of the team, the first Red Bull car known as the RB1.

With the RB1, Red Bull finished seventh in the 2005 constructor’s championship. The car’s best finish was a pair of fourths from David Coulthard (Australia, Nurburgring). Taylor would move on to a job at McLaren the following year.

The Autosport blurb also quotes Haas’ team principal, Guenther Steiner, as ruling out the possibility of running an interim car for testing this year.

“We don’t want to make a car [for testing this year],” Steiner says. “If you make a car for a few months’ time, then by next year it will be old. We want to keep on developing. And all of the parts we will be getting from Ferrari, we will not have them before next year.”

Last week, Gene Haas provided an update on the team’s progress during NASCAR Media Week activities in Charlotte. In addition to stating the amount of personnel at team sites in Kannapolis, North Carolina and around Europe, Haas said a driver selection would take place at the end of this summer.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”