Haas/Ferrari relationship "caused friction" with rival teams

Racing Point Force India team principal Otmar Szafnauer has revealed that Haas F1's very close relationship with Ferrari is not sitting well with its rivals, as the American team buys as many parts from Ferrari as they can.

Haas have been involved in two protests in 2018, with the first one coming after Monza, when Romain Grosjean was stripped from his points post-race for running with an illegal floor. Haas appealed but to no avail.

Later in the year, Haas were doing the protesting, as they claimed Racing Point Force India were not a new constructor as their car was designed by a different team (by Sahara Force India, which officially is a different team, but come on). They ended up not appealing the protest.

"Well, I think when you design, make and build your own cars, and there's one team that isn't doing it, and is getting a lot of technology from a top team, you're going to get that friction," Szafnauer explained to Motorsport.com.

"I think that's what it's really about. It's not about the competitiveness. That's the root cause of the friction.

"It's just a bit curious that only two teams had a front-floor that wasn't in compliance with the regulation after the FIA pointed it out, it was Haas and Ferrari.

"It's kind of like having two snowflakes that are the same."

The irony of Haas protesting that Force India didn't design their own car wasn't very amusing to Szafnauer, as he explained it was "good and bad".

"Even though we're 100% certain we were fine as a constructor it's never nice.

"The good news is they did thing the process, everyone put their cards on the table and the stewards said 'yep, you're a constructor'.

"The irony is we designed a lot more parts than they did."