Haas' new VF-22 is likely to look "a little bit different" when it hits the track, after digital artwork was released by the team on Friday. Haas were the first outfit to share images of their 2022 car ahead of the new season, with F1 introducing widespread technical rule changes that will mean strikingly different-looking machines to the ones that raced up until 2021. Team Principal Guenther Steiner revealed that the car shown in the pictures is of an earlier stage of development, meaning the physical car revealed in the pit lane in Barcelona on 23 February could be rather different. "I think how different it looks in Barcelona, you will see in two weeks!" Steiner told select members of the media, including RacingNews365.com . "It will be a little bit different, obviously. We're not saying now that it [will be] exactly the same. This is [an early] stage of development and we don't want to define that, but it's going that direction." Steiner explained that the intent is to refine the VF-22 considerably by the end of pre-season testing, rather than introduce further developments ahead of the first race. "At the moment, between the tests and the race, we will not have a lot of changes planned," he said.
Haas see "a lot of potential" in F1's new regulations
The VF-22 is the brainchild of Simone Resta, who assumed the reins of the American-led team's technical department in 2021. While the new regulations appear to be quite prescriptive, meaning there's arguably fewer areas for innovation on the cars, Resta is confident that fine-tuning a design will still mean unlocking quite a lot of performance. "Well, I think the model in many areas is quite different than the Formula 1 car," he told media, including RacingNews365.com , in reference to the physical model released by F1 at last year's British Grand Prix. "Clearly, as we mentioned many times during the season, the amount of freedom that the new technical regulations have left to the designers is reduced, if compared to the past. "So, if you look at the cars painted in the same way, you probably will see fewer differences than in the past. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of potential to change shapes, some areas more so than in others. "The way the regulations are, probably it is fair to say that there is a lot of potential in the details. So sometimes, the devil is in the details! "There's a lot of potential to improve things even if they don't look dramatically different to the other. But there's a lot of potential to improve the car and [find] the extra performance."
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