Haas has become the third team to announce it will launch its cars for the 2017 F1 season on the final day before pre-season testing begins.
The VF17 will make its first appearance on Sunday 26th February, the same day as Red Bull and Toro Rosso are currently slated to reveal their new cars.
Williams is the only team yet to announce when it will show off its new car for the first time.
Haas is heading into its second year of competition in Formula One. It will be the only customer Ferrari team using a 2017-specification power unit.
Kevin Magnussen has joined the team’s driver line-up for the new season alongside 2016 driver Romain Grosjean.
Get all the 2017 F1 race, test and launch dates on your mobile device using the F1 Fanatic Calendar
2017 F1 season
- Sepang pays Haas compensation for Grosjean’s 2017 crash
- Williams revenues rose in 2017 after Bottas deal with Mercedes
- Australian Grand Prix cost government £56 million last year
- “Grand Prix Driver” takes you inside McLaren’s nightmare final year with Honda
- Undisputed champion: 10 titles name Hamilton top driver of 2017
Joao (@johnmilk)
16th February 2017, 14:34
Wasn’t Williams last year the team that launched the car out of the blue? Or am I imagining things?
Ben (@b3ndy)
16th February 2017, 17:13
Yeah, Williams surprised everyone with a magazine cover launch IIRC.
Joao (@johnmilk)
17th February 2017, 8:35
I think they just did it again @b3ndy
Those are renders, but still
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/revealed-first-images-of-2017-williams-f1-car-874302/
@keithcollantine I am sure this source is reliable no?
Ben (@b3ndy)
17th February 2017, 8:37
Yeah! This is the car, its from the official Williams channels.
It makes a lot of sense to do this, the days of big launches seem to be over so why not get all the attention before everyone else. If I was Martini I’d be delighted.
Nunu
16th February 2017, 15:13
Why launch before needed – why expose your data…wise decision!
Andy (@andybantam)
16th February 2017, 20:42
To be fair, all of the cars will give away as little as possible at the launch.
Come Australia, we’ll have a better idea of the designs.
BT52
16th February 2017, 16:22
What do statistics say about the success of teams who present new cars at the last possible moment?
Is there merit in saying that the first to show are teady to go?
I find it interesting how similar cars actually are inlight of the secrecy of each team just prior to the first tests.
Andy (@andybantam)
16th February 2017, 20:54
That’s an interesting thought.
I think there’s an advantage in holding back the launch of your car if you’re sitting on some revolutionary concept that you don’t want your rivals to copy.
Such a concept would require testing, so the teams can’t hide their ideas forever.
I love this part of the circus :)
sward (@)
17th February 2017, 1:32
Are their actual reports that it will be called VF17? I haven’t bothered to google it yet. I thought the whole premise behind the VF1 naming was for “Very First 1”, because it was their first car? So VF17, to me at least, doesn’t make sense.
sward (@)
17th February 2017, 2:08
Nevermind their team twitter account confirmed it. Still seems odd to me.
sprint9 (@sprint9)
17th February 2017, 4:46
The VF-1 refers to the first Haas CNC machine. Last years car was the VF-16, VF referencing to the CNC part of Haas business, and Im assuming 16 for the year 2016. VF-17 follows this naming system updating for the year.