The American-owned outfit Haas has become the first Formula 1 team to reveal their 2020 racer, the VF-20, with online images ahead of pre-season testing.
The outfit will wait until the first official day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona to unveil its actual car, as artwork of the Ferrari-powered machine are posted on social media.
Haas F1 hopes that its new car, which features a change of livery following the end of its Rich Energy title sponsorship, will allow it to recovery after an a challenging and difficult 2019 season.
Last year was effectively derailed by an upgrade that was introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix did not deliver the step forward that had been hoped for.
The changes cost the team both a loss of performance as well as forcing it down a sequence of races where it had to run its cars in different specifications. In the end, the problem was traced back to a wind tunnel correlation issue which it hopes that it has got on top off.
Romain Grosjean, who has been retained for this year alongside Kevin Magnussen, commented that the team was going to throw all its efforts in to ensuring that it understood its 2020 challenger as soon as it could.
“We’re not making a presentation, we’re just launching,” said Grosjean. “We’re going to concentrate on the essentials and really get the best out of the car as quickly as possible.
“We’re waiting to see how is the car on track. We have all the numbers from the wind tunnel. I think we’ve learned a lot from last year. Now, again, the only answer we’re really going to get is when we run the car and see how it performs on the track.”
Hopefully the team’s performance will back on track and the VF-20 will deliver some positive results. It’s also great to see a new colour scheme for Haas following the dull and grey in the previous seasons.
Official news story:
https://live-haasf1team1.pantheonsite.io/news/haas-f1-team-first-showcase-2020-design
Social media:
https://twitter.com/HaasF1Team/status/1225418451721822208
https://twitter.com/HaasF1Team/status/1225465035788619779
https://twitter.com/RGrosjean/status/1225419307787673601
News stories on the Haas F1 VF-20:
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.haas-first-to-reveal-2020-f1-car-with-return-to-familiar-livery.DAWhMU78RpQP9tj0kZWAv.html
https://the-race.com/haas-first-to-reveal-its-2020-f1-car/
https://the-race.com/gary-andersons-verdict-on-the-2020-haas/
https://the-race.com/the-highs-and-lows-of-haass-f1-story-so-far/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/51405017
https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/11927643/first-f1-2020-car-revealed-as-haas-become-first-to-reveal-image
Why this year has to be better for Haas. Article provided by Formula1.com.
Last year was an unmitigated disaster for Gene Haas’ Formula 1 team. They spent all year trying to understand why the car was occasionally fast but mostly painfully slow.
Things got so bad, they ended up reverting to a version of a spec they used at the beginning of the year for the season-finale – something that is unheard of in Formula 1.
Then there were the clashes between team mates Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean on-track, most notably at Silverstone which resulted in both getting the hairdryer treatment from Guenther Steiner. It would be fair to say, the fiery team boss didn’t hold back.
Off track, things weren’t much better with the shambolic sideshow of their title sponsor Rich Energy, with those across the paddock breathing a sigh of relief when the two parties agreed to part ways. It was an unnecessary distraction when the team was trying to knuckle down and figure out a way out from the hole they were in.
This car crash is not what owner Gene Haas signed up for. He demands success, having enjoyed plenty of it Stateside with the Stewart-Haas Racing Nascar outfit he co-owns.
He’s pumping a lot of his own money into the F1 team and ninth in the championship is not a good enough return on his investment.
Critically, that poor performance means a reduced share of Formula 1’s revenues while the departure of their title sponsor before the end of the contract – and failure to sign Orlen and Robert Kubica as a development driver for this year – means they have taken another financial hit.
It’s true that Gene is a real racer. But he hasn’t become this successful by carelessly throwing his money away. So it is imperative that the American team has a more encouraging start to the season this time round.
A repeat of last year’s antics will not be acceptable.
Speaking on the day the team revealed images of their 2020 car, Gene said he is “trusting” the team have learned their lessons and applied them to making the VF-20 a more competitive offering.
Let’s hope they have because a second successive dismal campaign might be too great a test of their owner’s patience.