Haas broke cover of its VF-22 with renderings of the 2022 challenger. A first glimpse of an interpretation of the sport’s new regulations. PHOTO:HaasF1team

BRENDAN LINES FEBRUARY 5, 2022

HAAS are the first Formal 1 team to unveil its 2022 challenger, its VF-22 offering the first interpretation of the sport’s new regulations on Friday.

The team’s renderings of the VF-22 might be just a glimpse of the car that eventually turn a wheel at pre-season testing in Barcelona in a few weeks time.

Yet its unveiling is a telling vision of the work behind the scenes of the US-based team’s collaboration with technical partner Ferrari.

The VF-22 is the first entry to emerge from the American-owned team’s all-new design-office in Maranello, Italy – led by Technical Director Simone Resta. 

Resta was tasked with bringing together a new personnel group into the existing fabric of the team.

Now entering its seventh season in Formula 1, integrating with Maranello was just one of many challenges tackled through 2021, plus the team’s freezing of development of its 2021 VF-21 car  — a carryover of the previous year’s VF-20 — in response to Covid-19’s delay of the new regulations. 

Resta said the VF-22 was a “revolution” in design to meet the overhauled regulations.

“In terms of the car itself – other than the steering wheel, pedals, and extinguisher – there are no carryovers,” Resta said.

“Everything must be changed essentially. In certain aspects, freedom is limited compared to previous years, but the devil is in the detail, so I suspect that we will see a vast difference in performance across all cars.

“The biggest change is the aerodynamics, and from that perspective it’s a complete revolution because the regulations are so different.”

Resta said the VF-22 was a significant increase of the North Carolina-based team’s interaction with its engine supplier Ferrari.

“This is probably the most complex project the Haas F1 Team has dealt with to-date for many reasons,” Resta reflected.

“Haas has been working with Ferrari since 2016, and in those years the collaboration has been progressing step-by-step and we’re doing our best to build on this and keep improving the efficiency of the collaboration,” Resta said.

“Ferrari is supplying several components to us although the supply perimeter has changed this year as a result of the new components classification regulation.”

But Haas may have gone out on its own limb adding a push-rod suspension arm, where Ferrari is expected to run a pull-rod on its 2022 challenger.

However the renderings show no definitive blend of the VF-22’s suspension components and could be quite different to the on-track version of the car.

All 10 Formula 1 teams will gather to shakedown their new entries at Spain’s Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya February 23-25.