F1 has more 'drama' than NASCAR, says Haas

With the American's F1 team set to make its debut next year, Haas is in the unique position of being able to compare how motor racing's biggest two categories stack up.

And his early experience of F1, as he continues preparations for 2016, has led him to believe that it grabs the attention in a way that NASCAR is not able to.

Speaking amid the intrigue surrounding the futures of Lotus, Red Bull and Toro Rosso, Haas said: "There is a lot of drama.

"Last year they were thinking three teams were going to drop out, but the reality is that only Caterham dropped out.

"So there is always this thing that they say two or three teams are going to drop out, but they always seems to show up each year and always go racing.

"I think F1 is a little bit more transparent than NASCAR. In F1, everything is always publicly discussed."

Strategy Group focus

Haas believes that F1's drama is boosted by the fact that there is so much intrigue surrounding meetings and planned rule changes.

"They have these Strategy [Group] meetings and they throw out all these outrageous things and the media immediately picks it up as fact. It is just like an idea that someone threw out there, and if it will even make it to the next level is very remote.

"But there is a lot of drama in F1. Probably I think there is more drama in F1 than NASCAR.

"But still it is F1. It is the ultimate motorsport and from the technical point of view, when you look at the cars and what these guys are doing, they are cutting edge on CFD, wind tunnel testing, and the engines are unbelievably complex."

Governing differences too

Haas also believes that there are big difference between the way that F1 and NASCAR are governed.

"The FIA is definitely more democratic," he said, referring to motor racing's governing body. "NASCAR is more like a dictatorship.

"They [NASCAR] kind of basically say: 'Here is what we want to do'. They listen to your input but they basically make the decisions.

"In F1, you have these Strategy sessions when anybody can throw out any idea they want and then they vote on it. That is fundamentally different to NASCAR, where they listen to everybody and then say, 'here is what we are going to do'."

Interview by Lee Spencer