Günther Steiner: “The VF18 is an evolution of the 2017 car”
First to unveil its car this year, the Haas team released a few computer-generated images of the new VF18 on its website, which is a logical evolution of its predecessor.
The Haas team surprised everyone by unveiling its new single-seater that will take part in the 2018 season with Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen at the wheel.
Without major technical upheaval, the VF18 is therefore a logical evolution of last year’s single-seater, as confirmed by the team’s Sporting Director, Günther Steiner: « The regulations remained quite stable between 2017 and 2018, thus the VF-18 is an evolution of our car from last year. It’s less about reinvention and more about refinement. You see elements we had last year on this year’s car. Our 2017 car was quite good, but we didn’t always get the most out of it, and that’s what we intended to change in 2018. We made the car as light as possible to carry more ballast. We were able to do a better job putting the weight where we wanted it. »
The big novelty of the 2018 season obviously concerns the Halo, which is making its appearance on the cockpit. A little puzzle for the engineers: Most of the car’s evolution was the addition of the Halo. Aerodynamicists had to do a lot of studies, but the designers had to work hard to modify the chassis so that the Halo could withstand the prescribed loads. The total minimum weight of the car increased because of the Halo, and there is a higher center of gravity simply due to the device’s position. But, everyone is in the same boat, Steiner further explains.
Gene Haas, owner and founder of the team, is naturally very proud of his new model, which he wishes to develop throughout the year to secure a lasting place behind the top teams on the grid: “People see what we can do in Formula 1, and they see that Haas Automation can build world-class machine tools. We have eliminated many variables where we knew we were weak. We have focused on what it will take for our car to be consistent and close the gap with the best teams.”
📸 Technical Images of the @HaasF1Team VF-18 #Haas #F1 pic.twitter.com/Db7X390F9l
— SUTTON IMAGES (@suttonimages) 14 février 2018
