F1 News – Haas debut livery for their VF-24 car

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team have shared digital renders of the livery for their 2024 car, the VF-24, ahead of their shakedown at Silverstone next weekend.

After a week of future-focused F1 news – contract extensions for Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, Andretti’s bid to join the 2025/26 grid getting rejected, and then Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari for 2025 – Haas have got things back focused on the current year as they kick off car launch season.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the VF-24 running and racing – a sentiment I know I share with our partners and indeed the entire team,” said Gene Haas, Team Owner and Chairman of the Haas Team. 

“In Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen, we also know we’ve got a great pair of drivers behind the wheel, their experience will prove invaluable again as we develop our program through the year. We’ve used the off-season to put the processes in place to be better and ultimately improve our overall performance. Soon we get to see how we’re doing.”

The car continues with Haas’ usual palette of colours – black, red and white, and while the car and driver line-up looks pretty similar to last season, it’s the first launch for Ayao Komatsu as Team Principal after he was promoted to the role from Director of Engineering when Guenther Steiner’s contract wasn’t renewed last month.

Komatsu said he was looking forward to starting the season but doesn’t believe the team will be in a position to fight for points initially: “Out of the gates in Bahrain, I still think we’re going to be towards the back of the grid, if not last. 

“The reason our launch-spec car is not going to be quick enough in Bahrain is not because of the quality of the people we have here, but it’s because we started late and then we stopped for two months to do the Austin upgrade. It really diverted resources, so we lost time there, but the team is finding good gains in the wind tunnel so that’s positive and in terms of characteristics, it’s going in the right direction.

“We’re realistic about our expectations for the VF-24 to start but it’s still an exciting moment in any Formula 1 season to showcase the car. I know we’ll be maximising our time in Bahrain with all the various items we need to push through. Bottom line, we can’t wait to get going and get the season underway.”

Haas’ driver line-up will be supported by reserve drivers Pietro Fittipaldi and Oliver Bearman. Fittipaldi has been with the team since 2019 and took part in the final two rounds of the 2020 season for them in place of the injured Romain Grosjean. Bearman meanwhile drove in two free practice sessions for Haas last season as their rookie. The British teen is scheduled to take part in six free practices for the team over the course of the 2024 season.

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