Haas have high expectations for 2022 but believe repeating Brawn GP’s 2009 fairytale is highly unlikely.
The American outfit spent the entirety of last season at the back of the grid after opting to focus all resources solely on the new regulations for this year.
That decision is reminiscent of 2008 when Honda put all their attention into the new 2009 design, and created the innovative double diffuser, which would go on to win both championships after Ross Brawn had bought the team when the Japanese manufacturer pulled out.
However, asked if Haas could “do a Brawn” this season, team boss Guenther Steiner was highly doubtful.
“I don’t think it will happen again,” he told GPFans.com.
“Times have changed, the sophistication of the tech in the rules is so much higher these days than they were then.
“The loopholes are closed before they even become public. The technical advisory group, if somebody sees something which could be possibly giving one team an advantage, it is closed down immediately.
“I see the chances for that to happen very small, but never say never. That’s my opinion. Maybe somebody has got the holy grail somewhere here.”
VF-22 preparations firmly on-track ahead of the 2022 season with our new chassis homologated ✅#HaasF1 pic.twitter.com/S4vR68Arso
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) December 23, 2021
However, Haas are confident of being much more competitive than in 2021 and certainly hope to get an early jump on those in the midfield.
“We were building something this year [2021], which obviously is great that we carry that through for next year,” Mick Schumacher told the In the Fast Lane podcast.
“We have high expectations of next year’s campaign and next year’s car and things are looking good.
“We started quite early, I think a bit earlier than everyone else. Obviously, we had the opportunity to then fully focus on that without having to really think about what we do with this year’s car because we just kept it as it was.
“So hopefully, it will be a big step forward. I feel comfy in the team, I feel good with the team and happy to be able to again work with everyone next year.”