Haas have officially unveiled their second Formula One car – the VF-17.
Images of the car had previously appeared online yesterday during Haas’ filming day at the Catalunya circuit. This year’s car features a revised grey livery and a smaller shark fin to what we have seen on other 2017 cars.
“I think the pedal box is the same, but all the rest is very different from last year’s car. You always try to make a faster car, which is normally a lighter car. Now we can put on more ballast and get better weight distribution. The aero is completely new, as are the tires, so we needed to have some built-in adjustability. Aesthetically, the car has a more aggressive look. It’s lighter and more aerodynamically efficient. Everything we learned from our first car has been applied to our new car.” – Guenther Steiner
French driver Romain Grosjean will be joined at the team this year by Kevin Magnussen. Magnussen, who hails from Denmark, has had previous stints at McLaren and Renault.
The team impressed in their opening two races in their first year in the sport. Grosjean finished sixth and fifth in the Australian and Bahrain and Grands Prix respectively. The team struggled slightly later on in the season, however, with braking issues seeming to be their main problem. Will they be able to perform any better throughout 2017?
What do you think to the VF-17? How do you think Haas will fare in their second season in F1? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
After graduating in 2015 with a First Class honours degree in English Language and Literature, Nicky Haldenby, a lifelong fan of Formula 1, founded the Lights Out F1 Blog in 2016. Now in its sixth season, the blog has become a firm fan-favourite, delving deep into the sport’s history books and lifting the cover on unusual F1 statistics. Nicky also writes at F1Destinations and GPDestinations. In 2017 and 2018, he wrote for Badger GP. Nicky is also the host of the F1 Rewind Podcast and can be heard as the resident stats man on the 2 Soft Compounds Podcast.