A customer team is a Formula 1 team that purchases its power unit — and sometimes other components — from a manufacturer rather than developing its own engine. Customer teams are smaller operations that cannot afford to develop their own power unit from scratch. For example, a team may race using a Mercedes or Ferrari engine bought from the works team. Customer teams must still design and build their own chassis. They typically have less access to manufacturer support and resources.
Example: Haas are a customer team running Ferrari power — they don’t build their own engine but they do design their own car.
A customer team still designs its own chassis and is considered a constructor in the championship — they are not simply running a copy of another team’s car.
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