F1 Racing - UK (2020-03)

102 GP RACING MARCH 2020

bluntness his torquewrench would be proud of.

“The car in Barcelona [testing] and Australia was

pretty good – and for a car which had [effectively]

no upgrades to go intoQ3 two races from the

end cannot be a bad car – I think wherewe went

wrong, and we know where wewent wrong, and

I don’t want to go into the detail where itwent

wrong, is with the upgrades. We had a lot of

upgrades, but theyalldidn’t work.

“Not only they didn’t work, you get confused.

We had thefi rst upgrade in Barcelona [round

fi ve], which was pretty big, and Romain was very

unhappywith the behaviour ofthe car. But we

got into Q3 so it’s like ‘you don’t like it butthe car

is quick so let’s go down that avenue’. We should

have reacted earlier, but it was very strange

things happening.”

Steiner admits the team spent too much

time focusing on its historic weakness of failing

to understand and correctly manipulate the

sensitive Pirelli tyres. Once Haas realised the

problem was fundamentally aerodynamic rather

than mechanical, it was too late to have any

discernible impact on the 2019 season.

In many ways Haas endured the opposite

problem to Williams, which designed a poor

car behind schedule but at least made progress

through the season; the Haas was fundamentally

a sound design, but it didn’t go anywhere.

“It’s paranoia instead of looking a little bit

wider and seeing what it is that doesn’t make

the tyrework,” Steiner adds. “Once we got a

little more clarity, half the season was over.

In the raceswe never could score points, because

we just couldn’t keepthe tyres together – we

overheated them, basically, and westarted to

slide and once that vicious circle starts you are

slower and slower.

“We startedjust before the summer break to

look into what’s actually happening, andmake

sure as much as possible it doesn’t happen for

the nextyear. Theupgradesfor after the break

were already signed off. If yo u start to develop

something atthe summerbrea k you’re not getting

it to the trackuntil the endof the season. We

had a few pa rts whichwe te sted to get data, but

WINGING IT NO MORE

Haas will bewarefalse promise

at the start of the 2020

season,followinga chastening

experiencefor its technical

team last year.

If pre-seasontestingform

was to be believed, Haas

seemed setto build on the

steady progress of 2016-18,

but just tworounds into the

2019 campaign,the VF-19’s

fundamentalissueswere

unmasked.Subsequent

upgradesaimingto alleviate

thosewoes unusually

only compounded the

team’s misery.

Crucially,neither Romain

Grosjean norKevin Magnussen

couldkeep the Pirelli tyres

withintheir working range for

a sustainedlength of time. In

an all-or-nothingqualifying

lap, the two were quite

comfortable in pushingfor Q3.

In racetrim, the pair could hang

on for a handful of laps before

plummeting down the order

and fallingout of the points.

Haas threw everything

at the car to solvethis

conundrum,but to no avail.

The upgrades broughtto race

fi ve, in Spain,if anythingtook

the team further away from its

Melbourne high-watermark.

By Silverstone, the team had

electedto revert Grosjean’s car

to full Australia-spec. Afurther

upgradefor Hockenheim failed

to make a positive impact.

Haas had some serious

soul-searchingto do. Its car

proved incredibly reactiveto

temperature; in hotter climes

the dri vers struggledmassively,

but with suddentemperature

dropsthey immediately had

a deeper pot ofperformance

to dip into.

Ultimately, theteam

suspected a fundamental issue

with the frontwing designed

to the new regulations.The

team trialled aFerrari-inspired

modificationin Brazilian GP

free practice(the penultimate

round of last season) – hoping

to plot abettercoursefor thi s

year’sVF-20.

After identifying thefront wing (above) as a sourceof its troubles, Haas

fi rst trialled aFerrari-stylewing in the Brazilian GP practice sessions

Haas will be anxiousto avoid the damaging

front wing issue it had on the VF-19

Haas added a new range of turning vanes in Spain and innovative

endplates in Hockenheim, but neither couldfi x the VF-19’s problems

WORDS

JAKE BOXALL-LEGGE

ILLUSTRATIONS

GIORGIO PIOLA

2020 SEASON PREVIEW

102 GP RACING MARCH 2020

bluntness his torquewrench would be proud of.

“The car in Barcelona [testing] and Australia was

pretty good – and for a car which had [effectively]

no upgrades to go intoQ3 two races from the

end cannot be a bad car – I think wherewe went

wrong, and we know where wewent wrong, and

I don’t want to go into the detail where itwent

wrong, is with the upgrades. We had a lot of

upgrades, but theyalldidn’t work.

“Not only they didn’t work, you get confused.

We had thefi rst upgrade in Barcelona [round

fi ve], which was pretty big, and Romain was very

unhappywith the behaviour ofthe car. But we

got into Q3 so it’s like ‘you don’t like it butthe car

is quick so let’s go down that avenue’. We should

have reacted earlier, but it was very strange

things happening.”

Steiner admits the team spent too much

time focusing on its historic weakness of failing

to understand and correctly manipulate the

sensitive Pirelli tyres. Once Haas realised the

problem was fundamentally aerodynamic rather

than mechanical, it was too late to have any

discernible impact on the 2019 season.

In many ways Haas endured the opposite

problem to Williams, which designed a poor

car behind schedule but at least made progress

through the season; the Haas was fundamentally

a sound design, but it didn’t go anywhere.

“It’s paranoia instead of looking a little bit

wider and seeing what it is that doesn’t make

the tyrework,” Steiner adds. “Once we got a

little more clarity, half the season was over.

In the raceswe never could score points, because

we just couldn’t keepthe tyres together – we

overheated them, basically, and westarted to

slide and once that vicious circle starts you are

slower and slower.

“We startedjust before the summer break to

look into what’s actually happening, andmake

sure as much as possible it doesn’t happen for

the nextyear. Theupgradesfor after the break

were already signed off. If yo u start to develop

something atthe summerbrea k you’re not getting

it to the trackuntil the endof the season. We

had a few pa rts whichwe te sted to get data, but

WINGING IT NO MORE

Haas will bewarefalse promise

at the start of the 2020

season,followinga chastening

experiencefor its technical

team last year.

If pre-seasontestingform

was to be believed, Haas

seemed setto build on the

steady progress of 2016-18,

but just tworounds into the

2019 campaign,the VF-19’s

fundamentalissueswere

unmasked.Subsequent

upgradesaimingto alleviate

thosewoes unusually

only compounded the

team’s misery.

Crucially,neither Romain

Grosjean norKevin Magnussen

couldkeep the Pirelli tyres

withintheir working range for

a sustainedlength of time. In

an all-or-nothingqualifying

lap, the two were quite

comfortable in pushingfor Q3.

In racetrim, the pair could hang

on for a handful of laps before

plummeting down the order

and fallingout of the points.

Haas threw everything

at the car to solvethis

conundrum,but to no avail.

The upgrades broughtto race

fi ve, in Spain,if anythingtook

the team further away from its

Melbourne high-watermark.

By Silverstone, the team had

electedto revert Grosjean’s car

to full Australia-spec. Afurther

upgradefor Hockenheim failed

to make a positive impact.

Haas had some serious

soul-searchingto do. Its car

proved incredibly reactiveto

temperature; in hotter climes

the dri vers struggledmassively,

but with suddentemperature

dropsthey immediately had

a deeper pot ofperformance

to dip into.

Ultimately, theteam

suspected a fundamental issue

with the frontwing designed

to the new regulations.The

team trialled aFerrari-inspired

modificationin Brazilian GP

free practice(the penultimate

round of last season) – hoping

to plot abettercoursefor thi s

year’sVF-20.

After identifying thefront wing (above) as a sourceof its troubles, Haas

fi rst trialled aFerrari-stylewing in the Brazilian GP practice sessions

Haas will be anxiousto avoid the damaging

front wing issue it had on the VF-19

Haas added a new range of turning vanes in Spain and innovative

endplates in Hockenheim, but neither couldfi x the VF-19’s problems

WORDS

JAKE BOXALL-LEGGE

ILLUSTRATIONS

GIORGIO PIOLA

2020 SEASON PREVIEW