How Mick Schumacher and Nikita Masepin’s Haas VF-22 differs from the pre-release version of the car unveiled online during the shakedown in Barcelona
Haas has become the first Formula One team to release images of its 2022 car. And it quickly became clear: the car shown at the presentation would have little in common with the real racing car. The latter has now made its track debut. And in the process, the differences to the “dummy” from the official presentation have become obvious – and we present these differences.
The front end of the car shows some changes: The nose, for example, has been given a new shape and now sits more snugly on the second element of the front wing. The main profile of the wing continues to protrude slightly to allow more air to flow under the car. The slightly narrower front section in front of the front wheel suspension also helps.
Viewed from the front, the individual front wing flaps appear less distinctly shaped than in the presentation pictures. They are much more evenly shaped on the real car.
Interesting here are the struts that Haas will use not only to adjust the two upper wing flaps, but also to direct the airflow to the rear.
A completely new design we see on the side end panels of the front wing: The leading edge is kept in a wave shape And of course this has an impact on the performance of the whole end panel. Added to this is an aggressive winglet on the outside of the end panel.
Directly in front of the sidepods it also gets interesting: The entrances to the Venturi ducts look similar to those of the Mercedes W13. The inner area is much higher than the area further out on the car.
There are differences between Haas and Mercedes in the air deflectors in front of the Venturi ducts: In the Haas version, these aero elements extend further forward. The front edge of the underbody is pulled upwards on the VF-22.
The sidepods have also changed a lot compared to the first pictures. The shape is reminiscent of the solution shown by Ferrari on the F1-75, but Haas has taken its own approach here, with comparatively large air intakes at the front and a high side flank. The sidepods are also not as heavily cut as on other teams.
The various cooling vents on the top of the sidepods are clearly visible. But unlike Ferrari, these do not extend over such a large area. Instead, Haas seems to have created a compact space so that the cooling configuration can be easily adapted to changing conditions.
For the rearview mirrors, Haas has used a Ferrari idea from the 2018 SF71-H model and designed a hollow rearview mirror mount. Over the years, several teams have implemented very similar designs.
All new are small winglets at the top of the cockpit to help smooth the airflow from the halo bar. Further winglets are attached to the side of the airbox and thus above the driver’s helmet on the vehicle. For the air intake itself, Haas clearly takes its cue from Ferrari, which also uses a triangular airbox.
A little further back, a cooling vent can be seen on the back of the bonnet This is an approach we haven’t seen before on other 2022 cars.
But what the Ferrari F1-75 already had can also be found on the Haas VF-22: the exhaust pipe is partially exposed at the top before it flows into the tailpipe. Here, both teams make maximum use of the regulations.
And all in all, it is striking: The VF-22 has numerous interesting details and thus comes very close to a “real” racing car for 2022. Other teams have so far kept a very low profile with regard to the final specification of the vehicles – for example Red Bull. Alpine is the last team to have published pictures that have been blacked out in many places.
