No Guarantee of Pietro Fittipaldi Racing for Haas F1 in 2020

With the current Haas F1 pair unable to keep their hands to themselves, it may be high time for one of them to get the boot. If that does come to pass, one option could be reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi. However, Gunther Steiner has downplayed rumours of the Brazilian joining Haas F1 in in 2020.

However, the move does make sense with Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean getting too crash-happy. So, the American team’s boss has confessed that he will use the summer break to ruminate on the next driver lineup.

Other potential targets include Nico Hulkenberg and surprisingly, Valtteri Bottas. Fittipaldi has also been linked with the seat, and him being the reserve driver is a nice headstart. Unfortunately, the only stumbling block for the 23-year-old is a lack of a Super Licence.

“That’s a problem for all young drivers at the moment,” Steiner admitted to Ekstra Bladet newspaper.

The good news for the Haas F1 youngster is a new rule which would allow young drivers to earn Super Licence points by participating in Friday practice sessions.

“That’s difficult for us, otherwise I would do it for him,” Steiner said. “In our up and down situation, we need both of our drivers in the car as much as possible.”

The Haas F1 team head honcho also confessed that giving Fittipaldi his F1 debut would be a risky strategy for Haas.

“This year, McLaren took the risk with a rookie and Lando Norris did really well,” he said. “But it can also go wrong. It’s an option, but a high risk one.

“As a team we could do it, the question is whether we want to. If we had a rookie in the car this year, it wouldn’t have helped us when we got lost with the tyres.”

In a way, he is right and such a move could be a double-edged sword, where it can either reap rewards or backfire spectacularly.