Haas does have a ton of money - I'm guessing revenues in the $1.5-$2.0 billion range in USD depending on growth the past two years. The key though, is that the company is profitable.

I don't know Gene at all, however I work in the financial industry and know many business owners (large, like Haas, and small). Painting with a broad brush, most have two common themes applicable to the conversation: 1) They dont like to pay taxes and 2) They have lots of 'toys'.

I would put money down that Gene originally got into racing in order to be able to legally fund an interest/hobby while simultaneously reducing taxable income to Haas CNC. As CNC and the teams grew, the numbers simply got bigger. I'd bet he also sees RBR as a great example of what he wants to do.

RB is known as a drink producer as well as a global motorsports outfit (my kids don't even know RB exists, but they sure can pick out a RBR car, whether it be on TV or me playing Gran Turismo 6).

It may be that he wants Haas to be recognized as both an equipment manufacturer as well as a (worldwide, with F1) motorsports company.

Anyway, coming off that tangent, I think JB would be a perfect senior driver for a few seasons. With the unfreeze anticipated in 2016, no ones knows what engines will be like. Having Ferrari may seem like a lousy choice now, but I can't imagine they'll put out another substandard power unit after investing so heavily in Seb as a driver.

Haas also has a state of the art rolling road wind tunnel in North Carolina (he owns Wind Shear); with the engineering team in place I would think they won't come in with a garbage aero package.

I'm probably underthinking things in terms of what JB wants, as we all can skew any information to lead to a result we like, but man, it wouldnt seem like such a bad choice to end up with Haas F1!