For the first time in their Formula 1 history, Haas are considering taking a similar design approach to Red Bull, rather than Ferrari.
The Ferrari customer team have largely copied the Italians design philosophy since they joined the grid in 2016; however, the time has seemingly come to take a different approach.
With Mercedes customer teams McLaren and Williams having made huge gains after copying Red Bull’s downward sidepod concept, Haas are on the verge of taking a similar design path.
Haas’ technical director Simone Resta has admitted that the team “might change” their concept somewhat, with the Americans perhaps needing to also take a leaf out of Red Bull’s book.
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“Clearly the bodywork is something that is getting a lot of attention,” Resta said as per Motorsport.com. “Formula 1 is very glamorous so yeah, I understand it.
“But if you look at the bodywork, essentially you’ve got the follow-up part of the undercut where the style is similar between all the cars, there’s some who have pushed a little bit more, some a bit less. Then there is the side part, which is very wide, and then there is the rearward part.
“In this part, we are a bit different to the others. Of course, we have been looking at things from the beginning of the regulations, so from the middle of 2021, we thought we picked up the best option for us.
“We keep reviewing it. We reviewed it for this year’s car and we keep looking at it. We might change, we might not. Let’s see.”
Haas currently find themselves eighth in the Constructors’ Championship on just 11 points, with the side even being behind Williams.
Despite this, Nico Hulkenberg has been very quick for the Ferrari customer team in qualifying this season, to the extent where he’s made the same number of Q3 appearances (4) as Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
Haas have struggled when it comes to race pace though, as have Ferrari, interestingly.
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Resta admits that the midfield team must decide quickly though if they are going to move away from Ferrari’s design philosophy either this season or in 2024, with time rapidly running out.
“We are entering into a window where it’s more and more difficult to upgrade this year’s car in terms of timing,” he said.
“But still, we are in July and the season will end up close to the end of the year. So technically there could be time to change also the complete bodywork if we think it makes the car faster.”