Haas has had a woeful season so far, not being able to hit the expectations that they had for themselves. Now, after having a difficult weekend at Monza, as per a report by F1Maximaal, the American team is planning to completely change the current design concept of their car, which was created with the Ferrari SF-23 as inspiration.
Haas is currently stuck in P8 in the championship, with 11 points to their name. With Williams showing major improvement as of late, getting the 7th position seems next to impossible for Haas. On top of that, they had an extremely difficult weekend at the Italian GP, a race that was termed the worst race of the year by the Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg.
Haas, 2016-2019: 197 points
Haas, 2020-2023: 51 points 📉
What’s holding them back? pic.twitter.com/y9JLCAToiB
— formularacers (@formularacers_) September 9, 2023
The major issue with the Haas VF-23 is that since the team is a customer of Ferrari when it comes to the underbody parts, the car is heavily based off the Ferrari SF-23. Now, Guenther Steiner has realised that the Ferrari concept is extremely flawed and does not work for them.
Haas is set to make radical changes to their car in hopes of better performance
Ferrari themselves have had a tough season. The Italian team hasn’t been able to win a single race since last year’s Austrian GP, and with the current state of the car, they probably will go the rest of the season winless. Even after this, Ferrari have decided to continue with their current concept and keep on making small changes throughout the year to make it better. But as per a report by F1Maximaal, Haas wants to make a radical change.
Haas wants to completely modify their car and bring a B version of the VF-23 to the United States GP. It is understood that the upgraded car will take inspiration from the RB19, the fastest car on the grid. The team will try to base their floor, side air intakes, and engine cover off the current Red Bull car in an attempt to extract more performance.
🚨 Haas will be a bringing a B spec car which will be based on Red Bull in Austin
The floor, engine cover and sidepods will adopt elements from RB19
[#AMuS / @andihaupt1] #F1 pic.twitter.com/9WDDWFhet5
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) September 8, 2023
The main challenge with this redesign is that the car must keep its chassis, gearbox, cooling system, and suspension the same. Therefore, it will be a risk because the new parts of the car made under the new design concept might not work alongside the old parts that need to be kept the same under the regulations.
Guenther Steiner feels inspired by McLaren
Despite all of the doubts, Guenther Steiner is ready to take the risk. He said, “The risk would be even greater if we only discovered that something was wrong with our new approach in Bahrain 2024.” Therefore it is clear that Haas wants to use the last five races to collect data about the new design idea and then use it to make even more radical changes in 2024.
Steiner has also explained that the resurgence of the McLarens has been inspirational for them. The team principal said, “McLaren has shown that you can make a big leap with a change of concept. “There is no point in always adding new parts to your existing car and still standing still.” Therefore, Haas is also ready to follow in McLaren’s footsteps, hoping to gain the same results that the Woking outfit did recently.
