Haas VF-19
The Haas F1 team were the first to give us a glimpse into what the F1 cars of 2019 will look like when they revealed their Haas VF-19 livery on the 7th of February at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall in London. Signifying a new era with their partnership with Rich Energy, the car features a new black and gold livery.
In addition to the new livery, the digital renderings highlight the new, simplified front wing design which is now 200mm wider and 20mm higher. Although the details are not shown in the renders, The Haas VF-19 features 3 elements as opposed to the VF-18 which had 4. Furthermore, the complex endplate designs of the 2018 car have been simplified, although the full extent of this will be revealed at the car’s physical launch at pre-season testing.
The 2019 aerodynamic regulations are the biggest change from 2018 and have caused plenty of headaches for the teams. However, Ross Brawn’s plan is that these changes will hopefully improve overtaking on track. Over the last few years it was found that the behaviour of the airflow around the front wing made it extremely difficult for cars to not only follow each other closely, but also be able to conduct a successful overtake. Ross Brawn’s technical group as well as 8 of the F1 teams completed Wind Tunnel and CFD work to develop a draft set of regulations which proposed: 1) Wider, simplified front wing 2) Wider rear wing 3) Simplified brake ducts to combat this overtaking problem.
Further discussions took place and the final set of regulations were released at the US Grand Prix and featured several other changes too. Although, the ethos of wider front and rear wings and simplified brake ducts remains, the final set of regulations permit teams to include more than 2 strakes on the front wing, while the maximum height of the bargeboard area has been reduced and the maximum rear wing height has increased.
Overall the rear wing of the Haas VF-19 is 20mm higher and 100mm wider, with the rear wing endplates increasing in size accordingly. This rule now means that the rear wing elements will no longer impede rear visibility.
Although this higher rear wing philosophy was introduced relatively late last year, this has not been too much of an issue for teams. ‘With the rear wing in particular, although it was quite late, there was a fair amount of discussion that preceded it that indeed investigated alternative ways of increasing visibility, like reducing the rear wing box height,’ explains Ben Agethagelou at Haas. ‘There was a general consensus that because development had been under way, we were dealing with a wing that fits a particular box and the fact that it shoots up by 50mm isn’t a game-changer.’
Another change to the Haas VF-19 has been to the bargeboards which are now smaller and have reduced in height by 150mm. They have also moved forwards by 100mm, although again this is difficult to see from the renderings.
Of course with any rule change, comes plenty of speculation. ‘Apparently the rules should make overtaking easier, we were sold on them with a promise of a fantastic race in Australia next year,’ Guenther Steiner, the Haas team principal says. ‘It will not be like that, the silver bullet will not work in my opinion. I would love to be proven wrong, but I said from the beginning that in Australia it is just difficult to overtake, and nothing will change in 2019. Maybe we should take the wings completely off the cars and then they can overtake?’
The physical unveil of the Rich Energy Haas VF-19 till take place at 8am on the 18th of February at F1 pre-season testing and only then will we get the full picture of the 2019 car design.
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