Haas wants to capitalize on the excellent Austrian GP where it scored 12 championship points thanks to Nico Hulkenberg’s sixth place and Kevin Magnussen’s eighth. With this substantial haul, the American team is seventh in the Constructors’ Championship and has overtaken Alpine.
The team led by Ayao Komatsu has planned the introduction of a technical update package that has been approved by the technical director, Andrea De Zordo. While waiting to see the VF-24 on the track, our George Piola he managed to capture the moment when the American team’s mechanics were moving the new floor into the garage.
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal Haas F1 Team
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
The changes are substantial and, according to simulations, should be worth a couple of tenths of a second. The floor has been revised essentially on the pavement and the feeling is that it takes up some concepts seen on the Ferrari SF-24 in the version that preceded the evolution of Imola and Barcelona. According to rumors, it should improve the behavior of the car in fast corners, and bring a better flow quality to the diffuser than what is available up to now.
Obviously the most visible novelty concerns the mouth of the sidepods: following the concepts of the Prancing Horse adopted on the SF-24, the tray in front of the radiator cooling intake has been removed and the… visor of the hat has been mounted on top, increasing the efficiency of the side and maintaining good cooling values given that the duct and the radiant masses have not been touched.
Ollie Bearman, confirmed yesterday as Haas’ 2025 driver, will drive in FP1 at Silverstone and will have the opportunity to discover the technical innovations, while Nico Hulkenberg will contest the first session with the standard version, in order to carry out an accurate data comparison.
And it will be very interesting to see if Gene Haas’ team can make the new aerodynamic configuration of the VF-24 work as the technical staff develops the car in the wind tunnel and in the Ferrari simulator. The Scuderia is struggling to extract the true potential of the evolved SF-24: it would be interesting if those at Haas could do it first…
#Haas #Ferraristyle #mouth #floor #downforce
