Sunday start date for new 2017 Haas VF17

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The Haas F1 Team has confirmed that it will be launching its 2017 contender the day before the first pre-season test gets underway at the Circuit de Barcelona-Calalunya.

The team announced on Thursday that it would be rolling out the VF17 on Sunday February 26, the same day that Red Bull and Toro Rosso will also be taking the covers off their new cars.

It's the second model to be designed by the American-based race team, which had a strong start to its maiden season in 2016 before reliability and performance issues got the better of them in the second half of the year.

This year Romain Grosjean will be joined at the team by former McLaren and Renault driver Kevin Magnussen.

While there has been extensive speculation about changes to the McLaren and Toro Rosso liveries for this year's world championship campaign, it's not known whether Haas is considering a major overhaul of their grey, black and red design for its sophomore season.

Red Bull Racing sets launch date for its 2017 contender

Sauber F1 is still in pole position to be first to show off its new car, with its launch set to take place online on Monday, February 20. Renault follows on February 21 with Force India on February 22 and Mercedes on February 23.

McLaren and Ferrari will show off their new cars on February 24 in Woking and Fiorano respectively. The only team not to have announced when it will be launching its new car is Williams F1.

The first four day test takes place between February 27 and March 2, with teams subsequently returning to Spain again for the second test from March 7 to March 10. The first Grand Prix of 2017 takes place in Melbourne on March 20.

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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.