Haas give less than a day’s notice before livery unveiling

Henry Valantine
Mick Schumacher in his Haas cockpit. Abu Dhabi December 2021.

Just as we thought Red Bull had jumped the queue for their 2022 car launch, Haas have now beaten them to the punch.

The American team will unveil the livery of the VF-22 on Friday 4 February at 10am GMT, to become the first team to show their 2022 colours and design ahead of the new season.

Red Bull announced their plans to launch the RB18 on Wednesday 9 February, which had been the earliest scheduled car unveiling on the grid – until Haas gave just 20 hours’ notice before their 2022 challenger will be announced to the world.

Team principal Guenther Steiner had hinted that they would be the first to announce their new car – and the team’s confirmation means Formula 1 fans will not have long to wait to get to see their first glimpse of a brand new Formula 1 car.

Haas were the perennial backmarkers throughout 2021, as the team decided before the season started not to develop last year’s car at all so as to pool all of their resources into creating the best possible car for Formula 1’s sweeping regulation changes.

After their rookie seasons, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin will continue as the team’s drivers and will hope to be in the fight with other teams in the field, rather than battling among themselves at the back like last year.

Both drivers knew that it would be a year of toil in 2021 following the decision from Haas to put their effort into their 2022 car instead, and we will only know whether or not their gamble paid off once the cars get out on track in earnest.

Pre-season testing will take place with three days of running at Barcelona from 23-25 February, before the official pre-season test comes at Bahrain from 10-12 March, with 2022 beginning in earnest as the lights go out in Sakhir on Sunday 20 March.

Only Williams remain as the final team to announce their car launch plans.

 

2022 car launches

Haas: February 4
Red Bull: February 9
Aston Martin: February 10
McLaren: February 11
AlphaTauri: February 14
Ferrari: February 17
Mercedes: February 18
Alpine: February 21
Alfa Romeo: February 27
Williams: TBC

 

Steiner lays out his 2022 wishes

Guenther Steiner has revealed his 2022 F1 season wishes.

 

Haas

Related Articles