When Haas introduces its next upgrade package at the United States Grand Prix, the focus will be less on performance and more on proving the concept.
It’s been a difficult 2023 campaign for the American organisation which has tended to perform better on Saturdays than Sundays.
Prior to the summer break, the team identified that it had reached a development dead end and took the decision to switch concepts.
That will see a significant upgrade introduced in Austin, one team boss Guenther Steiner has branded the biggest in the team’s history.
Its appearance is a toe in the water towards the 2024 car, which can more fully embrace the philosophical changes.
“I don’t know yet exactly what to expect,” Steiner said of the pending upgrade.
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“Obviously you expect that you have got better performance, but the main thing is to get to see what you do next year, because next year’s car is completely changing concept.
“With this year’s car, we couldn’t do a complete change anymore because there is some restrictions you have got yourself, like the radiators and the side-impact structure.
“So we wouldn’t go the full way, but we go in that direction as much as we could.
“But it’s more to learn and hopefully we get a more stable car; the car is very temperamental aero-wise – downforce comes and goes.
“We need a stable car that in corners, in yaw, in steer, it is just more consistent.”
Much of what will arrive in Austin will be targeted towards next year, be that either directly or indirectly through informing the design team.
“Basically, this package came out of development we did for ’24,” Steiner explained.
“So always heading in that direction, and is the aim, that at least we learn about the car and how it reacts, so we are getting better, ready for next year.”
Haas stopped development of the current car earlier in the year when it recognised the diminishing returns it was seeing.
The money it saved has been rolled into the US Grand Prix package, an early investment into 2024.
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