Haas will upgrade its 2021 Formula 1 car with what team principal Guenther Steiner described as “some small parts” at Imola next month despite planning no development on this year’s car.
While the design process has been completed on these late developments, the parts will not be manufactured and ready to go until the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend that starts on April 16.
The Haas VF-21 will run in Bahrain this weekend in the same specification that it finished pre-season testing two weeks ago. It did trial some parts during testing, including an under-nose cape and modified front wing.
“Everything we planned to have here is here,” said Steiner.
“We had a late development which we will introduce in Imola, but that’s the last step of the of this car. There will be some smaller parts for Imola, no big changes to be honest, so it’s just some small parts which we didn’t get ready in time.
“But we knew that since a month that they would not get ready, it was not that we were late to anything. So we will have some parts in Imola and that will be it, we won’t change the car anymore.”
Haas is maximising the development resources invested into the 2022 car, which will be built to all-new technical regulations.
In order to achieve this, Haas has effectively sacrificed this season on the basis that it was always going to be a difficult one.
“I see it as a transitional year,” said Steiner. “Obviously, we focus on next year because there was a point for us where we were from last year to put a lot of effort into ‘21 knowing that these regulations come to an end and you have to develop a completely new car for ‘22.
“We said we’d take a step backward to go forward. It is a transition year but we are not holding back on developing for 2022.
“Therefore, I wouldn’t call it a holding pattern, that means you stop everything. We do the opposite. We are actually developing quite heavily on 22, we are up and running properly and pushing hard.”
Steiner would not be drawn on where he felt Haas stood relative to the other back-of-the-field teams in testing.
Haas was the slowest of the 10 teams on headline and adjusted lap times, meaning expectations are not high from the outside of the team.
“You saw the testing, it is very difficult to see who is fast who is not, who is doing what,” said Steiner when where Haas stood on pace relative to Williams.
“This year especially, with only three days [of testing] available with people doing completely different programmes. track being from one day to the other completely different because of wind conditions and sun condition. So it’s very difficult to judge. We will find out in two days.”
Both of the Haas drivers will make their grand prix debuts in Bahrain this weekend in what is characterised as a learning season for both Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.
When asked if simply finishing the race was the main target, Steiner agreed this was the priority given the need to build experience.
“Absolutely, bring the cars home, trying to get as much driving as possible over the whole weekend, including the race.
“That is what they need to do this year, just to learn their trade to be ready for next year when we hopefully have got the better car.
“But my expectation is that they bring them home and that is already a success for me. We’ve got two rookies and it will be a tough thing to do.”
