Image via @HaasF1Team
F1’s pre-season is underway as Haas reveal the VF-20
After the high of 2018, where the team finished fifth in the championship, Haas dropped to ninth last season.
Image via @HaasF1Team
Haas has become the first Formula 1 team to reveal its 2020 car, releasing images of a grey, red and black VF-20.
Gone are the colours and all signs of former sponsor Rich Energy with Haas returning to a more traditional look.
‘A real education process’
After the high of 2018, where the team finished fifth in the championship, Haas dropped to ninth last season.
The team managed just seven top-ten results, making the headlines more for its sponsorship troubles as title sponsor Rich Energy lost the plot.
The company’s then-owner, William Storey, took to social media to mock the F1 team, resulting in a breakdown of the relationship and the end of the deal.
This season Haas’ parent company, Haas Automotive over in American, will return as the main sponsor and bill-payer.
Team owner Gene Haas hopes his investment pays dividends.
“I’m pleased to see the car return to the more familiar Haas Automation colours, it’s certainly a livery that people identify with,” he said.
“Frankly, I’m hoping the VF-20 will return us to the kind of form we ran in 2018 when we finished fifth in the Constructors’ Championship. 2019 was a tough season to endure.
“We’ve been through a real education process, one that comes to all Formula One teams at some stage. I’m trusting we’ve learned from those lessons and have applied that knowledge into making the VF-20 a more competitive entry.
“It’s important to me that we’re back in the mix and consistently scoring points, we certainly have the capability and we’ve proved as an organisation we can do it.”
‘VF-20 has to deliver’
While Haas released pictures of the new car and its livery on-line, the actual machine won’t be seen in public until the first day of pre-season testing.
F1 testing gets underway at the Circuit de Catalunya on 19 February where Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen will physically remove the covers from the car, answer a few questions, and then hit the track.
Team boss Guenther Steiner says the new car is an evolution of last year’s with Haas expecting that lessons learnt will pay off.
“It’s always exciting to see the development of a new Formula One car and undoubtedly the VF-20 has to deliver where our previous car didn’t,” he said.
“With the regulations remaining stable into this season, it’s allowed us to improve our understanding of the car and to scrutinise ourselves more in order to find solutions and applications to channel into the design of the VF-20.
“Last year was definitely a set-back, one I would never have asked for, but you learn from such situations – we all have. Everybody at the team was forced to look at themselves and understand what they can do better.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the VF-20 make its track debut. As always in testing, you want many things, but lots of mileage, reliability and speed would be welcomed as we ready ourselves for the first race in Australia.”
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