Gene Haas

American machine tool maker who founded the Haas F1 Team, the first American constructor in Formula One for 30 years

Gene Haas

American machine tool maker who founded the Haas F1 Team, the first American constructor in Formula One for 30 years

Gene Haas studied accounting and finance at California State University, Northridge, but kept earning his living in the machine shop, and in 1983 he founded Haas Automation to build a programmable indexer of his own design. The company became America's biggest maker of machine tools, with a factory in Oxnard that reached a million square feet.

He founded NASCAR teams including Stewart Haas Racing, which won Cup titles with Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick. In April 2014 he was granted a Formula One license, and Haas F1 Team made its debut in 2016, scoring points in its very first race. A man who sells precision tools for a living has, fittingly, chosen a sport measured in thousandths.

Teams led

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