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Haas VF-23 makes track debut

NEWS STORY
11/02/2023

A week after the livery reveal, Haas' 2023 contender, the VF-23, takes to the track at Silverstone.

Kevin Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg were on duty for the American team, with the Dane getting the first laps on the board.

Having merely revealed the new livery last week, this was the first opportunity for fans to see the American team's 2023 car for real.

"Concept work on the VF-23 started approximately after the first races of last season," explained technical director, Simone Resta as the car was put through its paces, "basically as soon as we put the car on track, and we started learning about it.

"We then started to do work on our own new model with some aerodynamic development and some initial concept work," he added. "Week after week, month after month, there is a progressive increase of resources, a progressive shift from one project to the other, up to the point that when you arrive at shutdown, the vast majority of resources are on the new car.

"There is this transition period that is going more or less from the first race until shutdown, where the resources are moving from one project to the other. Then it's a matter of starting to release the big models in production, the chassis and then all the other parts etc.

"That is again another transition between shutdown and Christmas time where the majority of components are in production. At car build, we start with the chassis and the fuel system and then step by step we start to add blocks like the suspension and then the radiator and the cooling system etc. We planned to fire up the car at the beginning of February ready for our filming day on track."

In a bid to stop porpoising and guarantee safety, the floor of this year's car is raised by 15mm. Haas was one of the teams that didn't suffer with as much from porpoising. Asked if this impacted the car build, Resta replies: "In the middle of last year, the FIA decided to start a program to improve the safety of the cars with some short-term and medium-term actions. The short-term were reflected already while the medium-term actions will materialize with the new car.

"As mentioned, the floor will be modified and is going to be the biggest change of the car in terms of regulation. It's aimed to improve porpoising and I suppose it will cost everyone a little bit of performance, but at the start of the last year everyone has learned so much that I believe everyone will be in a much better place in terms of the porpoising characteristics of these new cars."

Asked if he feels the grid will be tighter this season or the midfield fight spread out, he says: "It's always very difficult to predict what's happening in a new season in terms of competitiveness and ranking from the first to the last cars on the grid. Considering a good stability in terms of regulation and considering the outcome of last year, I think that we might see the gap closing, but let's see."

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