Haas will test a new front wing at the Circuit of the Americas this weekend having identified it as part of the cause of their struggles this year.
The team has been frustrated by its inability to consistently keep its tyres within the operating window of temperature. It removed several aerodynamic updates from its VF-19 earlier in the year.Steiner said the new front wing, which will be run in practice today, is a “varient” which “is for more understanding of the car.”
“It’s not like an update it’s just like testing some variant.” It is being tested new to help the team “understand what we are doing” for next season, but Steiner didn’t rule out racing it this weekend if they are pleased with its performance.
Steiner admitted the team had not fully mastered the new front wing rules which were introduced this year.
“With this new front wing, it was a big change in the regulations,” he said. “As little as it seems, it really was something different the new front wing, and we went the wrong direction.
“The rest of the car, we didn’t get it wrong because I mean we still qualify maybe seven, eight races with two cars in Q3. So we didn’t do that wrong. Now as I said, we found out what we did wrong and therefore I’ve got full confidence we can get back there.”
However he stressed the team’s troubles this year were down to more than just the front wing.
“It’s not only the front wing,” he said. “The front wing is only part of it.
“[But] it’s there, it’s in the front, it affects everything. And therefore we try different solutions to see what we can see.
“It is not only the front wing, it’s not as easy as this. It’s the aero, how it is. So we just need to go back to see what works and what not. But therefore I’m pretty confident we can fix it for next year.”
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Dan Rooke (@geekzilla9000)
1st November 2019, 9:37
I’d love for Haas to unlock the potential of their car, after a few moments of brilliance last season they’ve gone backwards.
It feels like their package is working so well in so many areas, but being completely undermined in others and killing their race pace.
Whatever you think about their drivers, they are they are certainly interesting to watch – especially K-Mag who has the sharpest elbows on the grid! Success for Haas might encourage other teams to join and adopt their operating model which must be one of the ‘easiest’ for a new team to adopt.
Eric (@fletch)
1st November 2019, 10:04
Did they just flip the old one over?
gardenfella (@gardenfella72)
1st November 2019, 15:52
It must be tough when you can’t copy last year’s Ferrari because the changed the aero rules
pastaman (@)
1st November 2019, 20:40
Are we still making this joke? It must be tough to come up with something new
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
2nd November 2019, 6:24
At this stage every team bar RB are on a str ferrari alfa type front wing, odd that merc has just hybridised their to match this trend, in spite of their success.