The team principal of Haas Guenther Steiner believes his team can steal a march on their mid-table competitors by beginning development of their 2019 car at the expense of the existing VF-18.
There will be a number of significant designer changes for the 2019 with larger front wings, deeper rear wings and no brake duct winglets.
Steiner says that priority will now be given to getting a head start on next year’s Haas car, particularly as any major modifications to the current model would take until the end of the season to be implemented.
It is a gamble by the American-owned team who are fifth in the constructors’ championship – trailing Renault by 14 points and seven points ahead of Force India.
Neither of their drivers Romain Grosjean or Kevin Magnussen earned a podium finish so far this year. But there has been improvements in 2018 with a Ferrari engine and technical progress, too.
Steiner said: “We started the 2019 car a few weeks ago and there’s no point in developing the 2018 car any longer.
Because if you do continue development, by the time you manufacture the parts, it’s near the end of the season.
The gains are too small to use the parts in only two or three races. We do have a few more parts coming, but that’s it for the development of the 2018 car. We will bring a few more to the next races. They will not be big updates, but we will keep bringing them like everybody else. We’ve learned to produce upgrades, bring them to the car, and have them working.
This is a step that we have achieved in 2018 that we did not have in 2017. By changing regulations you need to start a little more fresh. So, you have to focus a little bit before and you cannot use what you developed for the 2018 car on the 2019 car.”
