Haas set to unleash ‘white Red Bull’ with ‘substantial’ US GP upgrade

Debuting a B-spec car at the United States GP, Haas aren’t too worried about today’s gains but instead hope the new “Red Bull concept” car will put them on the right track for 2024.

With just 12 points on the board this season, and a best showing of P7 in a grand prix, Haas accepted earlier this year the VF-23 in its early-season form wasn’t working.

Although it showed pace in qualifying, the car turned out to be a tyre-eater with pundits pondering whether Haas’ Ferrari-esque look played a role in that given Ferrari also struggled with tyre issues.

Haas’ VF-23 upgrades are ‘wholly aerodynamic-led’

This led to the team under Guenther Steiner’s management making the call not to put band aids on the car and instead work on a B-spec edition.

That long-awaited updated package, with the changes wholly aerodynamic-led, features an impressive list of revised parts including the floor, engine cover, sidepod inlet, sidepods, quarter panel and padding gills.

Haas have effectively broken away from Ferrari’s early-season model to embrace the Red Bull downwash concept.

“The upgrade on the VF-23 is aerodynamic,” said the team boss. “We changed the concept of the car because what we started with, because of the new regulations last year, we couldn’t make any more gains performance-wise.

“Creating more downforce and less drag, it just wasn’t there anymore, so we needed to change the concept to what is commonly known as the “Red Bull concept” or the “downwash concept”.

“It is a substantial update, and we’re able to do this within the cost cap because we didn’t have any updates at the beginning of the season because again, going back, we couldn’t find any performance that we could make parts to put on the car.”

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Haas team-mates hoping for a ‘big improvement’

Haas’ 12 points have left them down in ninth place in the Constructors’ Championship, four points behind Alfa Romeo and seven ahead of AlphaTauri.

But while ideally Kevin Magnussen is hoping the upgrades create a faster car, he concedes a lot of the Austin work is with next season in mind.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t hope it will give us a big improvement, but I think there’s actually a second element to bringing this upgrade which is to research for next year,” said the Dane.

“I think we’re all secretly hoping it performs better than what we currently have but actually the bigger target with this is, is the research and the learning we can do for next year’s car.

“I think it’s been clear that in very specific circumstances our car can perform, but it’s a too narrow window and we need to broaden it and make it more user-friendly and compliant with a bigger variety of tracks and conditions. Hopefully, we’ll be able to follow easier and be more friendly to tyres.”

His team-mate Nico Hulkenberg is also excited about the revised car having lambasted Haas after the Italian Grand Prix for being “unworthy” of points as the only team without upgrades. Now he’s getting the big one.

“The update is highly anticipated, it’s been a long time coming and it’s aimed to improve our performance, characteristics, and the weaknesses of the car we’ve found which has made us struggle especially on Sunday,” he explained.

“It’s to help tyre wear, consistency, and better performance. Hopefully, there’s a big jump in performance, but also, we need direction for next year – where we’re going to go with this car, which philosophy we’ll follow and which direction to take.”

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