Pessimism in Camp Haas Right from Car Launch?
Post-Guenther Steiner era at Haas begins with the car launch for the 2024 season on February 2nd.
Leaning more toward just a livery launch, Haas opted to have a digital launch of the car renders with 10 photos. The car, VF-24, is to be driven by Nico Hulkenberg on February 11th for the first Shakedown in Bahrain. The fans are expecting to see more details of the car at the time and to gauge its performance.
The team has stuck to its mostly carbon design with black, white, and red.
With very clear expectations from Gene Haas about instant improvements, newly promoted team principal, Ayao Komatsu, has been seen managing expectations by confirming that their expectations from the car is “realistic”. He has further gone on to specify that he expects the car to remain toward the back of the grid, if not at the very last.
While a lot would be depending on gathering data during the two Shakedowns Haas is scheduled for prior to the Bahrain pre-season testing, Komatsu’s management style and car development strategies are mostly to be more apparent in 2025. 2024 is set to be about doing the best that they can with what they have from the previous season. He further brought attention to it with the fact that the team had to delay development of the 2024 car for two months to modify the 2023 car prior to the Austin GP. This is as subtle a dig as it gets toward the previous management in terms of their planning and development strategies.
Following Guenther’s exit from the team, fans are looking forward to see what changes and more importantly, improvements are made to the VF-24 car for this season. While Komatsu is well-equipped to handle the role with his 16-year career in the sport across teams, his pessimism about the car is not sitting well with the fans so far. It is still unclear if he is indeed managing expectations or if he has two aces up his sleeves to be unveiled on filming day on the Bahrain track.
Haas has introduced no change to its driver lineup with Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg taking the seats for this year as well. Both their contracts expire at the end of 2024 as we enter silly season and there is added performance pressure due to the same.
The VF-24 does not appear to be too different from the previous season’s car and Komatsu has claimed that the car is a full-blown version of the developed 2023 Austin GP car. The focus had been shifted to improving aerodynamic concepts for the car back then and this rendition is expected to be a development on the same. It has changes in the fundamental architecture and the whole packaging under the bodywork. The new sidepod design follows the one pioneered by RedBull and its engine cover has also been updraged to accommodate the rest of the car. There are slight changes made to the rear wing as well to improve the car in the same direction.
Haas works with Ferrari to build their car and assembles it themselves. This fact has held back the only American-owned team on the grid quite significantly as they have slipped down to the last position in the Constructors’ Championship 2023. Gene Haas’ impatience with the team performance has been clear earlier with the restructuring in the team right at the very top management but it still remains to be seen if removing Guenther was enough to boost performance for Haas.
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