Why Haas’ Hungary F1 update was more than just a Ferrari copy

After ending up at the bottom of the constructors’ standings last year, the progress it has made with its VF-22 means it heads in to the summer break ahead of Williams, Aston Martin and AlphaTauri in the championship standings.

This is an incredible achievement when it’s considered that it has been the least active in terms of development. It is testament to the job done with the original design of this year’s car but also how it has worked to get the maximum from what it had at its disposal.

Of the 12 races that preceded the Hungarian Grand Prix, the team introduced updates at only five. All of these however would be considered minor, especially against the backdrop of what other teams have produced and still remain adrift of them in terms of performance.

That is why there was a lot of intrigue about the major upgrade it brought to the Hungaroring, which prompted a lot of accusations that it was nothing more than a ‘white Ferrari’.

The conclusions some drew was that Haas had simply copied Ferrari’s lead with its latest update, which isn’t entirely accurate as it owned up to leaning on the ideas of its technical partner.

As team boss Gunther Steiner said: “We have the same engine as Ferrari, same gearbox, the same suspension. Why would we copy anyone else? And they’re winning races? So 1 and 1 is 2, and we are not stupid.”

However, where Haas may have been even more shrewd, especially when compared to its closest rivals, is that its development hasn’t delineated too far from its origins either.

Comparing the sidepod solution that’s been raced in the opening half of the season and resided on Schumacher’s car in Hungary (left), with the new solution (centre), there’s a definite move towards the crevice sported on the Ferrari F1-75 (right) but it remains on the same design lineage.

Meanwhile, teams such as Aston Martin and Williams have completely changed their design concepts, following the example set by Red Bull, rather than refining and optimising the solutions that they began the season with.

Although it’s clear to see the inspiration that Haas has taken from Ferrari on the upper surface of the sidepod, this has also led to some significant changes to the overall shape of the bodywork, as the team explores how it can extract more performance from this current generation of cars.

Haas sidepod comparison

Whereas the designers might have previously used the bargeboards and sidepod deflectors to help…