So the highly anticipated 2022 Formula 1 launch season is officially underway after Haas offered a glimpse at their new VF-22 on Friday.
Though team boss Guenther Steiner confirmed this was an earlier version of the car in its development phase, there were plenty of interesting design features that indicated potential directions teams will head in under the all-new regulations.
The front nose was narrower than we’ve seen on previous concepts and squared off at the tip.
Curved front wing endplates suggested teams will try to recreate some of the outwash that F1 chiefs tried to eliminate with these new cars.
But a move towards centre-loaded wing flaps is very much part of the push to maximise airflow through the new Venturi-style tunnels under the car to create downforce.
The complex bargeboards of recent years are gone, but the detailed shaping and slots on the vanes entering the tunnels look set to keep those who love the tiny details satisfied.
Perhaps the biggest change versus the prototype car that F1 created last year though was seen on the sidepods and engine cover.
Here saw more of a carryover of the ‘coke bottle’ from the previous era of cars, with much smaller radiator inlets than the prototype, a smaller, triangular roolhop and a very aggressive slimming of the engine cover behind the side impact crash structure.
This is all focused on accelerating and directing airflow towards the upper part of the diffuser which was crucial in the 2021 cars and is even more so now.
Meanwhile, the rear wing was largely unchanged from the prototype and didn’t even feature the DRS that is going to remain in 2022.
Given this was an early version of the VF-22, we can expect even more innovations when the current design is wheeled out in Barcelona later this month.
But this certainly looked like a solid base for Haas to build from and there are plenty of reasons to expect the American squad can spring a few surprises this year.
The main one is that Haas has been fully focused on their 2022 car since the start of last year, perhaps the longest of any team on the grid.
Next is the interesting arrangement with Ferrari that saw quite a few of the Italian team’s staff move to Haas as part of cost-saving measures under the new budget cap.
As a result, a new “hub” was also set up at Maranello to focus on this year’s project, led by technical director Simone Resta, who was one of those to join from the Scuderia.
“This is probably the most complex project the Uralkali Haas F1 Team has dealt with to date for many reasons,” said Resta.
Also Read:
- Haas see little chance of ‘doing a Brawn’ but have high expectations for 2022
- Mazepin ready to battle as he sets sights on points in 2022
- No ‘clear and strict plan’ but Schumacher hopes for second season step
“It’s a completely new set of regulations and this season we have brought in a new team to manage the creation of the VF-22. Not everyone is new, but a good chunk of people have joined with a revised structure now in place.
“I consider this as a great success in the process. We are still early in the project and going through a transitional season of working together on a car for a full year, but if we look back where we started this team is already a success.”
Given there are high expectations of Ferrari in 2022, there’s no reason not to think some of the ideas and features on their car, the F1-75, won’t be included on Haas’ new car too, particularly as they supply all non-listed parts.
Finally, given the significant financial investment from the Mazepin family via Uralkali, Haas certainly won’t have lacked much to the other teams in terms of resources to develop their 2022 car.
Team boss Steiner suggested last year their budget was now only 10% less than the top teams under the cap, and given others worked longer on their 2021 project, Haas may have actually spent more on this year’s car than some of their rivals.
Add that to the additional wind tunnel hours Haas is permitted compared to those ahead under the regulations too, and you can really see why a big jump up the grid is possible.
The question mark though is over their drivers, Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher, who spent their entire rookie year at the back of the grid and will have to lead the development of the VF-22 in-season for the first time this year.
“The expectation is just to be able to fight for points and fight with the other drivers who are in Formula 1,” Steiner told Formula1.com.
“With their rookie year, we were always very open that the expectations were not high but that they had the opportunity to learn and to establish themselves in Formula 1. Now this year, we have to prove that we are on the right track with the drivers.
“But to say ‘we will be in the midfield’ – I don’t know,” added the Haas boss.
“I obviously have faith we will be there but I don’t know what the other ones are doing, so we have to wait a little bit longer.
“I am pretty happy [with] what happened last year because we had two tough years. But what kept me going was actually what the people did in ’21 back in the design office and in the aero group.
“I see how Simone and his group developed the car over the last year, how hard they worked on it. And the results from the wind tunnel, the improvements they do each session… that makes me cautiously optimistic.”
