Haas F1 team had a dismal 2021 F1 season, but they feel that their comprises last year will offer them with a bigger opportunity in 2022.
Haas’ 2021 was woeful to say the least. They finished bottom in the Championship, with neither Mick Schumacher, nor Nikita Mazepin scoring a single point.
There wasn’t race throughout 2021 where they looked like they were close to a top 10 finish. However, it wasn’t a surprise to many people as the American team approached the year knowing that they will focus all their resources on developing the 2022 car.
F1 teams are bracing themselves for major regulation changes ahead of the 2022 season. Significant aero-dynamic tweaks are set to shake the field up, and along with a newly introduced budget cap, Haas would love to make some big strides.
Looking forward to those Sundays back on the grid 🙌#HaasF1 pic.twitter.com/VkSxRy6mDh
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) February 13, 2022
Their team technical director Simone Resta insists that their tough 2021 season was beneficial for them. “It’s been one of the biggest changes I can remember in Formula 1. From a technical point of view,” he said.
“The challenge for team Haas was also that we were, with Guenther Steiner, we knew we were really rebuilding the technical structure from… I will say from scratch. But with a big change. So that was a complexity added to the technical complexity of developing a new project.”
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Haas team principal Gunther Steiner is ‘cautiously optimistic’ about their approach
Resta went on to say that the whole team had been working on the regulation changes for over two years. These rules were supposed to take effect ahead of the 2021 season, but ended up getting postponed by a year.
As a result, they approached last year with a full focus on developing a new car, completely from scratch for 2022. It gave them clarity, and will help them in the long run, says the Haas boss.
“The regulations have been evolving during 2020. So in a way the beginning of 2021 was a bit of a fresh start for everyone,” he continued.
Launching the new era of Formula 1 cars 🙌
Proudly presenting the #VF22 #HaasF1 #FWD2022 pic.twitter.com/JvK9YoJjbb
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) February 4, 2022
“And the capacity to try not to develop the ’21 car has given us more time and more bandwidth to kind of fully concentrate on the ’22 car. So that has been clearly a plus for ourselves.”
Haas were the first team in 2022 to unveil their new challenger. However, the car they showed was just a dummy with a new livery on. Fans will get a first glimpse of the VF-22 at next month’s pre-season testing in Barcelona.
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