Guenther Steiner has revealed new information about its 2021 F1 car as they are not to use any tokens, while the engine fire-up is stuck.
In the whole of 2020, Haas were very open about not developing its cars, as it fought against the likes of Alfa Romeo Racing and Williams. Much of its performance was derailed due to the Ferrari engines, which were down on power after F1 2019 changes.
The budget limitations also did not allow Haas to do much with its cars, with the team focusing more on the 2022 regs changes. For 2021 as well, Steiner has revealed that the American outfit will not bring huge changes, with no tokens used by them to develop parts.
The car, VF-21, will have few new parts still due to the regulation change regarding downforce cuts to adjust with the new tyres, but it won’t be hugely different. Steiner also revealed that they have two wind tunnel sessions lined-up with the 2021 car.
At the moment, they are working on the transmission side which can be done without the tokens. Ferrari, on the other hand, is rectifying its rear end, which may help Haas, considering the parts they use and the closer relation the two F1 outfits share.
Steiner noted that they wanted to have a new nose but there wasn’t enough time to complete it, especially with the 2022 changes. “Things like the front wing, baffles and brake ventilation are new,” the Italian said in an interview to German site AMuS. “They had to be adapted to the new underbody. We could have built a new nose, but we were too late.
“The wind tunnel programme had been shut down too long for us to have the nose ready before the deadline at the end of September. Regarding the car, it can happen that [when we got testing] we have to improve the 2021 car again if we discover during the test drives that we have made a mistake. That would be plan B.
“Actually, we don’t want to use any more wind tunnel time for the 2021 car. We hope that things in the front midfield will be as close as in 2020 and that the teams involved will continue to develop and leave time for the 2022 car,” summed up Steiner, before talking about the engine fire-up getting stuck due to restrictions.
The Italian was happy to inform that the 2021 F1 car was more or less ready, not just as dummy but a full car. The team is now focusing on assembling it. The engine fire-up, though, may not happen before the Bahrain F1 test due to engineers from Maranello not being able to travel at their Banbury base. In fact, Steiner is stuck in America, as well.
“This year it is easier in terms of logistics than sending our parts to Italy for assembly [but for people it is not],” said Steiner. “[Like] if I wanted to fly to England, I would have to be in quarantine for two weeks. There are only exceptions for athletes.” The drivers will be at Banbury with Mick Schumacher first up for his final seat fit.
Nikita Mazepin will be next, probably next week. The team so far has been quiet on their 2021 partnerships, especially on Mazepin’s front, with his sponsor Uralkali set to have a prominent presence on the F1 car. On the budget side, Haas is nicely tucked just under the cap’s mark of 145 million euros.
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