Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner says copying Ferrari does no harm as they want to be faster than their competition.
Ahead of the First Practice session of the 2022 Hungarian GP, all teams were prepared with new upgrades. But fans and pundits noticed something strange in the Haas.
Haas had brought upgrades to the Hungarian GP. The low Downforce track demands a separate Aerodynamic package. As it is difficult to overtake in the Hungaroring, Qualifying position is key.
Haas had announced that only one pair of upgrades was available to the team. It further decided that Kevin Magnussen will get the upgrades as he stands higher on the standings.
But upon arrival, Haas’s sidepods and Aerodynamic resembled a lot too close to Ferrari’s. So much so that fans started to label it as ‘White Ferrari’.
Steiner retaliated when asked at the Press conference about his team copying Ferrari’s car. He said, “If somebody says we copied, I will give him the same answer: ‘what should we have copied, the Williams?’”
He adds, “No disrespect to Williams, but it’s a completely different concept and they are behind us. So if you copy something, you copy the best you can and, at the moment, it’s Ferrari and Red Bull.”
“We have the same engine as Ferrari, same gearbox, the same suspension, why would we copy anything else? And they’re winning races? One and one is still two, and we are not stupid.”
Haas expects the new upgrades will help them score points. The new upgrades are expected to make the car faster on the straights and improve handling.
Haas copying Ferrari makes sense
Copying parts in F1 has been prevalent for some time. Haas isn’t the first team. in 2020, Racing point copied the 2019 Mercedes from front to back. They were labelled as the Pink Mercedes.
The rules of F1 forbid direct copying through the use of information shared, scanning, and photogrammetry tools. However, it is absolutely normal and has long been accepted practice in Formula One to borrow ideas, concepts, and development strategies from competitors’ cars.
But often copying parts does not improve performances. They might not suit the driver’s preference and might not improve speed or any other component on track.
Ferrari’s power unit and wind tunnel in Maranello are used by Haas. Since the Ferrari customer team entered Formula One in 2016, competitors have criticised it for stealing Ferrari’s ideas.
The current Haas package features major changes to to the floor, engine cover, sidepod bodywork, and other internal components. Steiner concurs that they use as many of the “listed team components” as they can from Ferrari.
“We are close to Ferrari, so obviously we’re going to see what Ferrari has done and copy that one. But it takes time because we had to launch the car and race. And then we had to go into the wind tunnel to do testing, looking at that car.”
Haas has outperformed the other midfield teams and is 7th in the standings. They were last in the previous years’ standings.
Also Read: Christian Horner lauds Red Bull in their effort to outshine Ferrari and Mercedes
