Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has warned that the upgrades introduced at the Hungarian Grand Prix will have little effect on performance in two of the next three races.
The American side essentially copied the Ferrari philosophy on sidepods, something that was made easier by their close relationship with the Italian team.
They have been using some free office space for their designs in Maranello, and the Scuderia have been supplying them with engines and many other parts since 2016.
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As long as they do not use any of Ferrari’s intellectual property, there is nothing illegal about taking their design and running with it.
The performance of the Haas car has significantly improved this year after they spent each of the last two years working on the VF-22 ready for the new technical regulations.
Buoyed by the return of Kevin Magnussen, the Banbury-based squad managed more points at the Bahrain Grand Prix alone than they did in both 2020 and 2021.
Between the 29-year-old and team-mate Mick Schumacher, Haas have added another five points finishes since then, and the team now sit seventh in the Constructors’ Standings ahead of AlphaTauri.
The upgrades brought in, consistent with the aim of the design concept, are designed to help the car perform well in the corners.
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Therefore, power tracks like Spa and Monza are expected to be outliers.
“On normal tracks it will certainly work better, so don’t judge the upgrade by our performances at Spa and Monza,” said Steiner, as per Motorpsport-Magazin.com.
The team are now going to start switching their focus to next season’s car, as the current upgrades will not help them in Belgium or Italy, and Steiner sees no point in upgrading after that.
“We were able to bring a few small upgrades for the high-speed tracks but they don’t make the car 5-7kph faster,” he explained.
“We have to bring some developments at this point for next year because it’s too late now.
“We couldn’t prepare it for Spa or Monza and it doesn’t make sense for the races after that because you don’t need that kind of set-up then.”
Magnussen is 11th in the Drivers’ Standings after 11 rounds of the 2022 season, 10 points and four positions ahead of Schumacher.