Haas took a “kick in our nuts” over sponsorship, better news may be imminent

Head-on shot of Mick Schumacher's Haas during the Hungarian Grand Prix. Hungaroring July 2022.
Guenther Steiner has revealed Haas hope to have new sponsors on board within the next couple of months.
Haas have not had the best of luck with their title sponsors over the last few years, starting with the Rich Energy debacle in 2019.
For 2021, they joined forces with Uralkali and as a result, took on the son of a key shareholder in that company, Nikita Mazepin, as a driver.
But that partnership, on both counts, ended earlier this year as a direct consequence of the horrific events in eastern Europe.
Maintaining a white livery nonetheless, Haas’ VF-22 cars have since been comparatively bare of sponsors’ branding alongside their rivals.
The most obvious exception is 1&1, a German internet technology company who have a deal with driver Mick Schumacher and their blue logo appears both on team apparel and just above the number on the nose of the car.
Steiner has previously said the team would take their time to ensure any future sponsorship agreements were the right ones.
And the team principal has now indicated some are in the pipeline, with the situation having been helped by Haas enjoying a much-improved campaign as they sit seventh in the Constructors’ Championship after failing to score a point in 2021.
“There are quite a lot of people [wanting to watch F1] at the moment,” said Steiner, quoted by GPFans.
“Honestly, I mean, what is a queue? A queue is three people but you don’t have that many companies that [will] pay you this amount of money, but we have had very good talks and it’s progressing very well.
“We are negotiating, there is good interest in it.
“Hopefully, if everything goes well in the next month or two, we can announce something.”

Asked specifically if a new title partner was a possibility, Steiner added: “Hopefully a title [sponsor] as well, but that’s not for sure.”
Steiner admitted what had happened at the end of the winter had felt like a painful blow in a particularly sensitive area, and that some prospective sponsors had tried to take advantage in the misguided belief Haas were desperate for revenue.
“In the beginning, the good interest was people wanting a cheap ride because they thought we were struggling and all that stuff. That didn’t work,” said the Italian.
“People see what we are doing. We got kicked in our nuts basically, but we are still up and standing and going strong.
“People believe in that. They know we can do better than we are doing now.”