2021 F1 Haas New Car Launch Review James Punt
F1 2021 Haas New Car Launch Review
F1 2021 Haas – All change on the driver front. The long-established Grosjean – Magnussen pairing has been ditched and replaced with an all-rookie line up of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin. Taking an all-rookie approached is always high risk but Haas had very little to lose. Like Alfa Romeo, the poor performance of the 2020 Ferrari power unit made the team irrelevant, chugging around near the back of the grid, just making up the numbers.
Signing Mick Schumacher means a lot of attention will be focused on the team. Russian backed Mazepin brings in lots of money and a lot of trouble. He was regarded as a bit of a maverick in F2, quick but reckless. His private life brought the team into disrepute even before he had set foot in the car.
He enraged the world of social media when a video emerged of him allegedly groping a female friend. ‘A young man who needs to grow up’ says team boss Gunther Steiner. He will have his work cut out managing the spoilt offspring of a Russian billionaire, who is part-funding the team to give his kid something to play with.
Mazepin will not actually be driving as a Russian driver due to the World Anti-Doping Agency placing a two-year sanction on Russian athletes, meaning that if any Russian wants to compete, they must do so as a ‘neutral athlete’. That means no Russian national anthem would be played should he win a GP, which of course is not going to happen.
Schumacher Still In Italy
Mick Schumacher has admitted that while his physical preparation has gone well. He has not travelled to the UK to be able to work with the team. The simulator in Italy has not been an ideal option either as that is being mainly used by Ferrari. That is less than ideal but very much in line with Haas’ general level of preparedness, or lack of.
Haas hit an early snag with their new Ferrari power unit. They received the power units at their factory in England, but the Ferrari engineers needed to operate them, are not allowed into the UK without a quarantine period. The drivers are the only team members allowed in without the quarantine as ‘athletes’ are exempt. It now looks like Haas will not get to run the power units until they arrive in Bahrain for the pre-season test.
Travel restrictions have meant that team boss, Gunther Steiner, has not even been to the factory in England this year. He has remained at his home in America and will only join up with the team in Bahrain. This year, the cars will be built in the factory in England and not in Italy as is usually the case. This is to avoid the British engineers being stuck in quarantine. It is also partly driven by the fact that the car is going to be very largely a straight carry over from the 2020 car. So, there is not much more to do than rebuild last year’s cars.
Aerodynamic Alterations
Haas have made some aerodynamic changes to the car but have not used any of their development tokens. They had wanted to run a new nose but ran out of time. A better Ferrari power unit can help improve their performance. However, making such limited changes to their 2020 car does not suggest we should expect Haas to be making any real progress in 2021.
The team have said that all their wind tunnel time allotted will now be purely focused on the 2022 car. “It will be a year of transition. We will only work in the wind tunnel for 2022. If everything doesn’t go wrong, we won’t do anything with the 2021 car.” The car will not be developed during the season. That is a statement of intent. Intent to remain in the bottom three.
F1 2021 Haas Car Launch
The team didn’t bother with any sort of formal launch but instead released some photographs of the car. There is a different paint job featuring the colours of the Russian flag, on an American owed car. This is dangerous territory due to the bans on Russian athletes competing as Russian. Athletes cannot use national emblems, flags or symbols on their clothing. Sticking it on a car seems to be OK.
This will be the least redesigned car on the grid. No tokens spent means that there will only be some aero tweaks but nothing will have been substantially changed from last year’s car, a car that scored three points. 2021 for Haas is just a chance to break in their two rookie drivers and give them a season to get more comfortable with being in Formula 1.
Can Haas Finish Ahead Of Williams?
However, the reality is that Haas are not really in Formula 1, but Formula 1 C. They will be trying to finish ahead of Williams to avoid coming last. Their only hope is that the new Ferrari power unit is a big improvement on last years and that the new Mercedes power unit will not help Williams get ahead of them.
Haas must be considered as favourites to come last in 2021. They are not planning any development for the car over the season. They have two drivers new to F1 and Williams are under new ownership and starting to make progress. It is understandable why Haas are giving up on the 2021 season. But, it will do them no favours to be just making up the numbers. It will be an unrewarding slog for team members to travel the globe, just to take part in races with no realistic chance of scoring points.
