How Haas is succeeding where Ferrari and Aston Martin are struggling

From heading into the current Formula 1 campaign braced to be at the back of the grid, Haas has far exceeded expectations.

With back-to-back sixth placed finishes for Nico Hulkenberg having thrust it towards the front of the midfield battle and it now locked in a tight fight with RB for sixth in the constructors’ championship, the German driver himself labelled it a “hell of a comeback.”

But what is important to understand about the surprise progress of Haas this year is the fact that this is not a story of the team simply producing a better car from the off and reaping the rewards from it.

Instead, while its VF-24 is an improvement on its predecessor, the key to its uplift in form has been in the way it has managed to keep up the trajectory of its in-season development programme.

That consistent progress has made an impact because it is something that other teams have struggled to deliver. After all, this is a year where updates are now widely being characterised as ‘upgrades’ or ‘downgrades’ depending on their success.

For example, Ferrari has most recently faced some headaches with a new floor it introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix, having brought back its high-speed bouncing issues.

Aston Martin found a new package it brought to the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix made its AMR24 trickier to drive on the limit, which has hampered its fight in the midfield pack.

For both teams, plotting their way out of these difficulties is made harder because the new parts have brought positives in terms of downforce, but they have triggered unintended consequences that have limited real world gains.

This phenomenon of updates not bringing everything hoped for seems to be a trend with the current cars and is one that even Haas has not been immune to. But how F1’s smallest team has managed to get on top of things so well, while its bigger budget rivals are struggling, is an intriguing matter – and one that the squad itself does not have an obvious answer to.

Haas F1 boss Ayao Komatsu says there is nothing unique his outfit is doing that others are not, but suspects it simply comes down to a new mindset that has been instilled this year.

Asked what the secret to Haas’s success was, he said: “I don’t know honestly, the only thing we can say is that we’re working…