Haas follow Mercedes logic with Ferrari inspired upgrades

Haas introduced a large number of changes in its Austin upgradepackage despite just four races remaining after the United StatesGrand prix this season. The reasons for this development seem toall be concentrated on its prospects for next season, embracing thesloping sidepod design philosophy now followed by all cars on thegrid. The introduction of the new concept of sidepods - one thatabandons the infamous scalloped sidepods that originallycharacterised only the SF-23 and VF-23 - should therefore be readmore as a realignment to the concepts expressed by the Scuderia'scar than a departure. We mean to say that at this moment that thetwo cars are perfectly aligned in terms of the evolution of theoriginal concept and this finds a valid reason in coordinating - inrelation to the adoption of the same power unit. transmission andsuspensions - the basic approach of the VF-24 project based on thecharacteristics that are already known and will be an integral partof the Ferrari. There would have been no reason to continue withthe previous conformation of the sidepods of the VF-23 as it wouldnot have allowed a real evaluation of the aerodynamic concept ofnext season's machinery. The data collected from Austin, whereperformance was objectively not equal to expectations, constituteswhat will be a competitive advantage when referring to this phaseof detailed study of the aerodynamic setup of the VF-24. It seemscorrect, in any case, to reiterate that the engineers led byTechnical Director Simone Resta did not consider the introductionof this extensive development as substantially capable of releasingthe potential that has at times been shown with the current car.Rather, as we have already defined the Mercedes W14, it is theputting on track of a real travelling laboratory, which allows theteam not only to rely on simulation data but also verify theeffects of the modifications in real conditions. In an F1 worldwhere testing is practically banned, the need to experiment on thetrack during race weekends becomes increasingly important to avoidtaking directions which - under the influence of limits imposed bythe budget cap - could not be changed during the season.