Haas VF24 takes to the track for first time at Silverstone

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This year's new Haas contender has broken cover, with the VF-24 taking to the track at Silverstone for the first time in a short nine second video clip released by the team on social media.

Nico Hulkenberg was at the wheel for the car's brief shakedown. The video was accompanied by a caption declaring "Oh how we’ve missed that sound".

The team unveiled its new livery in a launch event earlier this month, but used a show car based on last year's chassis for the presentation rather than unveiling this year's model.

The car is shown leaving and returning to the garage, but it's not possible to get a detailed look at what changes the team has introduced for 2024 after finishing bottom of last year's constructors championship.

A second shakedown is scheduled to take place in Bahrain before official pre-season testing, followed a week later by the first race of the year at the same venue on March 2.

Read also: Magnussen excited to see ‘real change’ at Haas

Although there are strict rules about how much track time teams are allowed for current cars, they are permitted to complete 400km of running - up from 200km - during two permitted days of ‘promotional events’.

Sauber became the first team to run its 2024 F1 car on track, with a brief outing for the C44 at Barcelona on Saturday.

This will be the first season for Haas without Guenther Steiner at the helm as team principal. He has been replaced by Ayao Komatsu, the team’s former director of engineering.

“It has impacted things," Komatsu admitted. "It was announced on January 10, and we’re running our car for the first time on February 11. That’s a pretty short timeframe.

"It wasn’t just my role, we had a technical director leave as well, so there were two significant vacancies to fill," he added, referring ot the promotion of chief designer Andrea de Zordo to replace Simone Resta.

"The timing of this transition period was not ideal; however, I’ve been very impressed with the maturity of everyone’s reaction," he said. “In terms of car build and preparation for the test, it wasn’t a problem operationally.

“We formalised and communicated this structural change as soon as we could," he insisted. “Thanks to this we were able to keep the disruption to the minimum."

Komatsu has warned fans not to expect dramatic overnight improvement on last year's performance and suggested that the car will still be among the back markers when the new season gets underway.

“We’re realistic about our expectations for the VF-24 to start," he conceded.
"I still think we’re going to be towards the back of the grid [in Bahrain]. if not last."

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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.