Haas heads back to Austin this week for its second race of 2023 on home soil and with a striking splash of stars and stripes on its VF-23 contender.
The US outfit will roll out its special edition livery at The Circuit of the Americas across both its cars accompanied by an equally American tagline for the race weekend – ‘We The People’ – the opening line of the United States Constitution.
But wait, there’s more! The team’s partner MoneyGram – which celebrates this week its one-year partnership with Haas – will also add a touch of its own to the VF-23’s aesthetics one that will be revealed this Thursday.
Finally, there will be an extra star on the car too in Austin with the bright yellow star of the Starlight Children’s Foundation adorning the rear wing of both Haas’ entries.
“When you get to Austin, you can’t escape the buzz of the event, and every year we go, the team becomes a bigger part of that excitement,” commented team boss Guenther Steiner in Haas’ US Grand Prix preview.
“Once again, we’ll be changing our look across the car, driver suits, our garage and everything you see online.”
Steiner explained the essence of the ‘We The People’ tagline that the team has appropriated for Austin.
“One thing that is different this season, is our look and feel is encapsulated under the tagline ‘We The People’ – the first line of the American Constitution,” he said.
“There’s obviously a lot of talk about American teams right now, but we’re still currently the only American team on the Formula 1 grid.
“Many have said for years that we haven’t exploited that fact, but I’ve always said that’s because we want to earn credibility within the paddock first.
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“We’ve been through a lot in our short time, but along the way have amassed a very loyal, and growing fanbase, and we want to recognize them.
“Yes, it’s some nice marketing, but anyone who works with my team knows how passionate they are, and how funny and genuine our fans are. This race is dedicated to them as, we the people, make Haas what it is.”
For all the aesthetic embellishments that Haas has implemented for this week’s round of racing in Texas, the most important change on the team’s VF-23 will be the significant upgrade that will be introduced in Austin which entails a change of concept ahead of next season.
“The upgrade on the VF-23 is aerodynamic,” explained Steiner. “We changed the concept of the car because what we started with, because of the new regulations last year, we couldn’t make any more gains performance-wise.
“Creating more downforce and less drag, it just wasn’t there anymore, so we needed to change concept, to which is commonly known as the “Red Bull concept” or the “downwash concept”.
“It is a substantial update, and we’re able to do this within the cost cap because we didn’t have any updates at the beginning of the season because again, going back, we couldn’t find any performance that we could make parts to put on the car.”
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Kevin Magnussen says the revisions introduced in Austin aim first and foremost to establish a solid foundation on which to build on for next season. However, the Dane also hopes that the changes will deliver a short-term boost to Haas.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t hope it will give us a big improvement, but I think there’s actually a second element to bringing this upgrade which is to research for next year,” Magnussen said.
“I think we’re all secretly hoping it performs better than what we currently have but actually the bigger target with this is, is the research and the learning we can do for next year’s car.
“I think it’s been clear that in very specific circumstances our car can perform, but it’s a too narrow window and we need to broaden it and make it more user-friendly and compliant with a bigger variety of tracks and conditions. Hopefully we’ll be able to follow easier and be more friendly to tyres.”
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