Haas admit that the sacrifice of their 2021 season has been a "plus" for the team in being able to prepare more for 2022. Given the new technical regulations being introduced into F1 for the upcoming campaign, the American outfit decided not to develop their car last year so that 2022 could be their main focus. This meant that it was not an easy season for rookie drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, with the pair mostly battling at the rear of the field. Technical Director Simone Resta says that working on the new generation of cars has been a huge challenge. "It's been one of the biggest changes I can remember in Formula 1, from a technical point of view," Resta told media including RacingNews365.com . "The challenge for team Haas was also that we were, with Guenther [Steiner, Team Principal], we knew we were really rebuilding the technical structure from... I will say from scratch, but with a big change. "So that was a complexity added to the technical complexity of developing a new project."
2021 allowed Haas to "fully concentrate" on 2022
Resta says that the team's decision to halt development on their 2021 car was beneficial in allowing them to fully focus on the 2022 campaign. "The regulations have been evolving during 2020, so in a way [the] beginning of 2021 was a bit of a fresh start for everyone," he explained. "And the capacity to try not to develop the '21 car [during the] season has given us more time and more bandwidth to kind of fully concentrate on the '22 car, so that has been clearly a plus for ourselves." Haas have spoken of their optimism for the 2022 season, with Steiner stating that he is "cautiously optimistic" about the squad's prospects . Schumacher and Mazepin will again race for the team in what will be their second year as Formula 1 drivers. The team recently unveiled images of their new car, the VF-22 , and RacingNews365.com understands that Haas will stage a physical launch on the opening day of the first pre-season test session in Barcelona (23 February).
Most read
