Gene Haas spoke out after Frenchman Romain Grosjean finished sixth in Australia last month on his debut for the team and went one better in Bahrain in a fairytale start in Formula one — even if Mexican Esteban Gutierrez has yet to score.

Earlier this week in Shanghai, Grosjean claimed detractors were “jealous” of the team’s success — an accusation repeated, with interest, by a defiant Haas.

“This place is a soap opera,” the 63-year-old told reporters. “It’s sour grapes. A lot of the teams at the back really don’t know what competition is.

“They’re getting maybe a little too fat and happy,” he added. “I guess there are a lot of whiners in F1 that talk about our success.

“We never came into this (sport) to run at the back. We want to compete, and that’s what we’re going to do. If people don’t like that then that’s their problem, not my problem.”

But Haas showed he has little time for the sport’s political sniping.

“I don’t know what they are complaining about, quite frankly,” he said. “There have been a lot of obstacles to get to this point and now we’re here, we’re not going away. They’d better get used to that.

“There’s an assumption that because we’re using Ferrari parts that it makes easier. But I would challenge any team to take a complete Ferrari car with all the parts and just try to run it.”