After a long three-week break, F1 has finally returned to the track in Austin, an important event for many teams, especially with various updates debuting in the United States to attack their goals in the final part of the season. Even though the championship is nearing its end, there are still several battles open, like the one for sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship, which involves Haas and Racing Bulls.
For their home race, Haas not only showcased a new livery to mark the start of their partnership with Toyota but also introduced a substantial package of technical updates, with engineers focusing on some of the car’s most sensitive areas, such as the floor, along with the bodywork and the undercut under the radiator cooling intakes.
The undercut under the cooling intakes is now more pronounced along the entire bodywork, favoring aerodynamics, following a trend already observed on other cars with the aim of maximizing airflow to the lower part of the car and reducing drag. Given the high temperatures initially expected in Austin, it was also decided to revise the engine cover, with new cooling panels and a larger central outlet at the rear — changes that could also be useful in Mexico, one of the toughest races of the season in terms of cooling management.
However, the main focus of attention was on the floor, which has been revised in several areas: from the initial section with fences that direct airflow to the lower part towards the diffuser, to the extractor itself, and also a curb that has been deeply reworked in many of its components. This is significant work, especially in a critical area of the car, following the floor development introduced before the summer break at Silverstone, which delivered the desired results in terms of downforce.
Beyond the technical updates, there is an interesting aspect of this package worth exploring. The American team decided to use the weekend as a sort of test bed, splitting their work into two phases. While Nico Hulkenberg’s car received the updates from the first free practice session, Kevin Magnussen’s car initially took a different approach.
In the first part of the weekend, from FP1 to Saturday morning’s Sprint Race, the Dane ran with the old floor, allowing a direct comparison with his teammate not only for qualifying but also for a race stint. This idea compensated for the lack of three free practice sessions, where these comparisons are usually made, before aligning both cars for qualifying and the race.
Even with the old package, Kevin Magnussen managed to achieve an excellent seventh place during the sprint, right in front of his teammate, who unfortunately suffered from a poor start but recovered to finish in eighth. This double points finish allowed Haas to temporarily overtake Racing Bulls in the Constructors’ Championship.
The most interesting aspect, however, is that Haas cleverly used the sprint format to maximize data collection and then aligned both cars with the same package. Taking advantage of this year’s new format, which allows free setup changes between the end of Saturday morning’s sprint race and Saturday afternoon’s qualifying, Magnussen also switched fully to the new package, including the sidepods and floor.
In the past, teams had changed setups after a bad qualifying session in parc fermé, starting from the pit lane: Haas is the first team to use this approach with an experimental program from the start, taking advantage of the “free” window after the sprint. In the future, it’s not unlikely that other teams might adopt a similar approach with one of their cars.
In the meantime, Kevin Magnussen managed to secure a top-ten finish in Q3 and will start the race from ninth, just behind Pierre Gasly’s Alpine and Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin. The goal is to climb up the grid again: Alpine surprised everyone with a significant leap forward between Friday and Saturday, while the Silverstone team will be one to watch, especially in terms of tire degradation, as they’ve struggled with this in hot races, like today’s is expected to be.
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