RED, WHITE & ZOOM

Meet the first U.S.-based team in Formula One in decades

The first American-owned race team in Formula One in 30 years has a message for the rest of the world: We’re here to stay.

Gene Haas, a pr o minent NASCAR owner who sets up shop in Kannapolis, N.C., made the plunge into the priciest and most uppity motorsport on the planet, forming Haas F1 Team and signing drivers Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez.

They will be the home team this weekend, when the United States Grand Prix takes place at Circuit of the Americas.

“Everybody made it sound like we were clueless getting into Formula One,” Haas, a 63-yearold Ohio native, told the American-Statesman. “They painted us as a bunch of bumbling idiots and thought the Europeans