Haas has justified herself in front of the press in recent days for having copied Ferrari, but not only. The team with the lowest budget in Formula 1 for several years cannot rely solely on innovation at the moment and prefers to draw inspiration from concepts that work on the track, brought by the best teams.
So in Hungary, the team was able to bring new elements, the first major evolutions for Haas since the beginning of the season.
Inspired mainly by Ferrari’s concept, the team also looked at what Red Bull and Mercedes were doing, and then developed its own parts followed by computer simulation tests and wind tunnel testing.
Only Kevin Magnussen was able to test these new features on Friday during Free Practice 1 and 2. The position is clear for Steiner and Haas: the highest-ranked driver will be able to have the new features.
The pontoons are mainly concerned. The upper force is much more dug out than in the past, resembling strangely those of Ferrari but also other teams like Alpine.
The air extraction system at the diffuser level has also been revised to offer a more efficient airflow. Consequently, the suspensions have also been redesigned.
If visually, these evolutions bear a strong resemblance to Ferrari’s F1-75, the concept itself is familiar to the teams.
Here is the concept of pontoons used by Ferrari for comparison:
