As Formula 1’s long, dark winter reaches its end, the dawning of a new world championship season will be embraced by the ten teams for all the promise that a fresh start can bring.
Tomorrow Haas will become the first to step into the spotlight to reveal their new livery for 2023 – though not an actual VF-23 chassis. It’s fitting they should raise the curtain, as arguably no F1 team has been transformed in the sport’s new ground effect era as much as they have.
Just two winters ago, Haas was bracing for a tough 2021 season knowing they were effectively sacrificing the entire year ahead in the hope of a better start to the new ground effect age. They had two drivers with a combined experience of zero grands prix. They had no plans to develop their car over the season. They only thing they were guaranteed to get out of 2021 was a lot of pain and few points.
But that is a distant memory as the new season comes into view. America’s only F1 team are no longer bunkered down but reborn, itching for a scrap. Not only have the rookies been replaced but the team now sports one of the most experienced line-ups on the grid. They have a shiny new title sponsor. And on track, they are looking for points – many of them.
Motivation will come from the blunt reality that the team ultimately underperformed in 2022. The struggle for points in the later races was real, but any other team which took points from three of the opening four rounds – including a 12-point haul in the Bahrain opener – would have been hoping for better than eighth come Abu Dhabi. But a combination of factors, not least of which being Mick Schumacher failing to match his returning team mate Kevin Magnussen when the car was strongest, prevented the team from fulfilling its full potential.
Haas are determined not to suffer the same fate in 2023 and are willing to take unpopular decisions to strengthen their driver line-up. The young and unpolished Schumacher has been jettisoned from the team to the ire of many of his many admirers. In his place, none other than Nico Hulkenberg earns another opportunity in Formula 1 at the fifth different team of his career.
In many ways, Hulkenberg is the opposite of Schumacher; an experienced veteran considered to be a safe and reliable pair of hands in the cockpit. When it comes to the madness of the midfield, it’s hard to think of anyone with more laps in and around the minor points places than…
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