Haas sneaked up on us and dropped their digital reveal for the new VF-22 at 11am this morning. With a date still needing to be confirmed and F1 fans thinking they were cutting it fine. I think they chose the best option. They chose the wow factor and shocked us all.
The new VF-22 is the seventh Haas F1 car. It’s the first car to rise from ashes from the American team’s new design office in Maranello, Italy. All of which is led by their Technical Director Simone Resta.
Haas sadly started dropping towards the back of the field in 2020 and in 2021 finished with no points. Haas opted not to develop their 2021 car but instead decided to put 100% of their time, effort and resources on this year’s car. Haas are on a mission to return back up to the midfield. Which let me tell you, they shocked us with the reveal and I think that they may shock us with something else too.
The livery isn’t quite ‘new’, it is still the same design with their primary base colour of white featured with blue and red lettering. Although what is new, is lots of other things and the design of the car. Which in my opinion is just stunning.
Haas will have the same driver lineup with Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin. I think we will see them have a better year and knowing that Haas didn’t develop the car for 2021 it seems to make sense. For a team that ran high up the ranks challenging Renault (now Alpine), it left lots of people puzzled as to what happened to Haas.
Team founder Gene Haas commented “It’s that time of year where you’re naturally optimistic that the hard work and effort of everyone will translate to a competitive entry on track, We made the decision back in 2020 to really channel time and resources into the VF-22, foregoing anything track-related for 2021 – which wasn’t easy to watch. Hopefully that decision bears fruit and we return to challenging for points and taking something from the weekends.”
Team Principal Guenther Steiner also said “We all know what the team is capable of, we’ve proved that in the past, and with this new car – born out of a completely new set of regulations and with our new design team in place – I’m confident we can showcase once again that we can compete on weekends….
It’s been a tremendous effort by everyone involved and now comes the fun part of getting the new car to the circuit and dialling in all the elements. Last season was a long one but I’m confident that 2022 will see us back in the mix with the VF-22.”
Technical Director Simone said “This is probably the most complex project the Uralkali Haas F1 Team has dealt with to-date for many reasons. It’s a completely new set of regulations and this season we’ve brought in a new team to manage the creation of the VF-22.”
All of the teams will keep some parts of their car hush hush and they will do a reveal similar to Hass I assume, so other rivals don’t get any ideas and do a ‘copying the homework’ situation.
Haas will do a grand unveiling of the car in the Barcelona pit lane on the first morning of the Barcelona pre-season testing, with Antonio Giovinazzi and Pietro Fittipaldi as test drivers and drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin. Most people are assuming that the car will look a little different to the pictures that are now released, prior to mentioning how other teams could get some inspiration.
Personally I think that with the way things are now looking at Haas, it definitely is filling people with confidence and excitement for where Haas will land itself this year. I think good things are coming for the team and it’s about time it does.
I hope you have enjoyed the read.
Until the next one, take care.
Amy Campbell 🙂
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