Team owner Gene Haas has played down the importance of the reserve driver role in Formula 1, saying he would prefer his team to share a common reserve driver role with technical partner Ferrari.
With Haas F1's driver line-up of Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez confirmed back in November, speculation has been rife around the team’s vacant reserver driver role, with some expecting an American driver to fill the void.
“We don’t have a reserve driver at the moment,” Haas told Sports Business Daily Global. “If we can find a common reserve driver with Ferrari or someone that would probably be the best way.
“With the safety there is today you generally speaking need a reserve driver just for sickness or some other emergency.
“The need for a reserve driver probably isn’t as important as you think. We don’t typically have reserve drivers in NASCAR either.”
Haas will officially unveil its 2016 challenger on the opening day of the first pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on February 22.
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