Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsHaas F1 Team

Haas unveils first F1 car

©HaasF1Team

The new Haas F1 Team has unveiled its first ever car ahead of its debut season.

The new car - known as the VF-16 - was launched via the Haas social media feeds. The VF-16 features a pearlescent livery which is predominantly light grey, red and dark grey with a relatively short nose. Haas explains the car's name is inspired by the early days of Gene Haas' company.

GALLERY: Haas VF16

"The origin of naming the car 'VF-16' goes back to the first CNC machine manufactured by Haas Automation, the VF-1, launched in 1988," the team said. "The 'V' stands for vertical, which is an industry standard designation for a vertical mill. Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation, added 'F1' to the name to unofficially designate it as the company’s 'Very First One'."

Romain Grosjean will drive the new car - which features a current specification Ferrari power unit - on the opening day of pre-season testing on Monday, with the team rolling the car out in to the pit lane at 07:50 local time.

Haas completed a shakedown with the new car on Saturday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

As well as the Haas Automation branding the VF-16 carries sponsorship from luxury watchmaker Richard Mille, which announce a ten-year partnership with McLaren last week.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.