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Haas F1 secures engine deal with Ferrari

Plans are coming together for Gene Haas to launch his US-based Formula One team in 2016. The tooling magnate and NASCAR team owner has renamed his grand prix racing outfit from Haas Formula to Haas F1, he's setting up shop in North Carolina with a satellite location to be announced somewhere in Europe, and now he's penned an engine supply deal with Ferrari.
The deal doesn't come as such a surprise after Haas signed on as a sponsor with the Maranello squad a couple of months ago, but confirms the reinforcement of the partnership between the two teams. "The multi-year agreement," according to Ferrari in the statement below, "is for the supply of the entire power unit starting from 2016," including the engine, hybrid assist and presumably the gearbox as well. But that's not the extent of the deal.
Billed as a "technical collaboration agreement," the deal opens the door for Haas and Ferrari to cooperate even more closely than the latter does with existing powertrain customers Sauber and Marussia. "We believe this new partnership has the potential to evolve beyond the technical role of supplying our power unit and all related technical services," said Scuderia Ferrari team principal Marco Mattiacci.

Ferrari production to increase under Marchionne

The head of any company has to juggle the relationship between supply and demand. Of course, that applies to automakers too, even ones as high-end as Ferrari. And as with many other decisions, the way Ferrari has addressed supply and demand has come down principally to the principal.
Enzo Ferrari may have only wanted to sell as many vehicles as he needed in order to fund his company's racing department, but with the F40 - the last model made under his watch - Ferrari ended up increasing supply to meet growing demand. However, after Luca di Montezemolo took over in the wake of Enzo's passing, he started constricting supply. He figured Ferrari could sell 400 units of the F50, for example, so he built 399. More recently, Montezemolo undertook a course of action that spread Ferrari into more markets, while simultaneously constricting supply to increase demand and thereby profitability.
It's been a winning formula for Ferrari. Just days ago, the company announced record earnings up by 14.5 percent in the first half of 2014 over the same period last year, which itself had seen a 7.1-percent increase over the year before. Clearly the strategy has worked, but Montezemolo's successor is already eying a different approach.

Race Recap: 2014 Canadian Grand Prix makes its money on the back end

Momentum. That was the word of the weekend at the last race in Monaco - Nico Rosberg retaking it, Williams getting reacquainted with it and Marussia tasting it for the first time, among other examples. That same, weighted term flew to Canada with the money circus known as Formula One, took all weekend to build and then walloped the front end of the field and the season on Sunday afternoon.
Rosberg carried his Monaco triumph into qualifying, putting his Mercedes AMG Petronas on pole ahead of teammate and reconciled friend Lewis Hamilton. Reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel finally got the better of Daniel Ricciardo, lining up for Infiniti Red Bull Racing in third ahead of his teammate in sixth, split up by Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa in the Williams. Ferrari, having brought numerous aero updates for this race, didn't get the push it was really looking for, Fernando Alonso happy to get seventh ahead of Kimi Räikkönen, still troubled by his F14T, in tenth. Jean-Eric Vergne secured eighth for Toro Rosso, Jenson Button lining up ninth for a still-struggling McLaren.
When the lights went out, Mercedes, Williams and Marussia would all find out how quickly momentum can short circuit or disappear in a sparkly ball of high-speed contact, spilled fluids and tire barriers.