A highly inconsistent start to the season for Haas. The Italo-American team, the clear backmarker in Australia, celebrated a 5th and 8th place finish in China, also benefiting from Ferrari’s double disqualification. The result was due to excellent strategic management as well as the potential of the technical package. The team’s reaction and the characteristics of the Shanghai circuit mitigated the issues seen in Melbourne, but they are far from being fully resolved.
The discovery
Haas was held back in Australia by aerodynamic instability, a frequent phenomenon with ground-effect cars. In Melbourne, Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman had to manage an inconsistent aerodynamic load, which in extreme cases triggered bouncing episodes with accompanying vertical oscillations. This is a phenomenon that is difficult to predict in the factory, which caught the team off guard. Since 2022, teams have developed CFD and wind tunnel metrics to provide indications of the risk of encountering bouncing, but absolute certainty only comes once the car is on track.
During testing in Bahrain, the drivers had an initial sense that there might be an issue, but since it was not particularly critical, it was not given much attention. The misjudgment was partly due to a testing program focused mainly on running with high fuel loads, without pushing the car to its limits. “Had we known we would face the issue that later emerged in Melbourne, we certainly would have done more laps with low fuel and DRS closed, because that’s when the problem is most critical,” reflected Ayao Komatsu, as reported by The Race.
The problem emerged two weeks later in Australia at the 9-10 chicane, a 250 km/h section with uneven asphalt, requiring large steering angles and yaw—ideal conditions for bouncing. “Turn 10 completely exposed the problem. There is also a deep compression in that corner,” Ayao Komatsu explained. “It’s a combination of aerodynamic oscillations and the characteristics of our rear downforce. If it were just one of the two issues, you could live with it. But when both overlap, the car becomes very, very difficult to drive.”
The downforce is there, but it’s unusable
The Team Principal clarified that the issue is not a lack of downforce on the new VF-25, but rather the drivers’ inability to fully exploit it: “Essentially, in Turn 10, the aerodynamic load that the driver could extract was probably the same as what we had in Melbourne in 2024, even though in the wind tunnel, the performance we record at that speed is much higher. You can’t extract it because it’s unusable. That’s what we need to address.”
Komatsu’s words echo those of Toto Wolff after the 2024 Australian Grand Prix, when Mercedes, also suffering from bouncing and aerodynamic instability at the time, was unable to express its full potential: “Our sensors and pressure cells measure aerodynamic load. They tell us that compared to last year, we have 70 more points of downforce in a specific corner. But in terms of lap time, we are not a single kilometer per hour faster. It makes no sense.” Both situations highlight how crucial it is for drivers to have a stable aerodynamic load, which is necessary to perceive a clear limit of grip to push towards.
The reaction
According to Komatsu, the issue originates aerodynamically, but solving it also involves suspension mechanics. In China, despite having only one free practice session available, the team experimented with different mechanical setup configurations, adjusting stiffness and ride heights to mitigate the phenomenon. Progress was made, but the smoother and less critical nature of the Shanghai track compared to Melbourne also played a role. Suzuka will be a more truthful test, particularly in the S-curves and compressions of the first sector, followed by the two Degner corners. The Japanese round will allow Haas to gather valuable experience on the root of the problem, which will then be used to develop the updates needed to eliminate it completely—a path similar to the one Ferrari followed last summer, eventually recovering with the developments introduced at Monza.
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