Haas F1 Team launches 2024 car with low expectations

February 6, 2024

Pre-season testing for the 2024 Formula One (F1) season is just a couple of weeks away and MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, the only American team currently on the grid, was the first to launch their car: the VF-24. The car will make its track debut on Sunday at Silverstone Circuit in Towcester, England, where the British Grand Prix will be raced this year.

Car launches primarily serve as a showcase for the new cars’ livery and the team sponsors. Haas’ sponsors for the upcoming season include some big names such as Chipotle and the online casino entertainment company Play’n GO, with the financial services company, MoneyGram, remaining their title sponsor.

Regarding their new livery, the team has continued with their color scheme of white, red and black. The car looks very similar to their 2023 contender, with less white on the nose and a bigger font for the team logo on the side.

The team has also continued the trend of using less paint and fewer colors in favor of exposed black carbon fiber. Teams do this to remove the weight of paint from the car and quicken its pace, if possible. The abandonment of bright colors and creativity to shave off weight is disappointing, but expected. The fans will likely see a ridiculous amount of exposed fiber on the grid this upcoming season.

Owned by American businessman Gene Haas, the team has faced much criticism from motorsport fans due to its poor performance in past seasons. Equipped with a Ferrari engine, the team finished at the bottom of the Constructor Championship in the 2023 season.

Their drivers, Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen, ended 16th and 19th, respectively, in the driver’s championship. New Team Principal, Ayao Komatsu, who replaced the recently fired Guenther Steiner for this upcoming season, claims that it is very likely that their car will be the slowest during pre-season testing. Nevertheless, Komatsu has high hopes that their performance will improve as the season goes on and they continue developing the car.

One thing is for certain: nobody expects the VF-24 to be a challenger for the championship this year.

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Marcela Montufar Soria, Multimedia Editor

Marcela (She/Her/Ella) is an Honors College History and Classical Studies and Humanities major with a concentration in Religious Studies and a minor in East Asian Studies. She is an international student from Mexico and is the fourth member of her family to be a student at UTSA. After graduation, she plans to pursue a graduate education in Chinese history. Outside of school, Marcela volunteers at the Witte Museum as a gallery attendant during the weekends. Her hobbies include violin playing, amateur stargazing, video editing, writing, reading non-fiction, and painting. She joined the Paisano in Fall 2021, became Assistant Multimedia Editor in Spring 2022, and became Multimedia Editor in Spring 2023.

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