After the Chinese Grand Prix, the Haas team was already being described as the surprise package of the early season. But what exactly is making the VF-26 one of the few cars consistently capable of finishing in the points, including Sprint races? The car generates strong aerodynamic downforce, but its real strength lies in its balance, with a consistently stable behaviour between low-speed and high-speed corners.
Only four teams have managed to score points in every round of the season so far, including Sprint events. Alongside Mercedes and Ferrari—both regularly placing at least one car on the podium—Haas and Racing Bulls have also achieved this consistency. It is no coincidence that their position in the standings reflects the characteristics of their respective cars.
The American outfit currently leads the midfield battle, holding a two-point advantage over Alpine. However, Alpine benefits from a Mercedes power unit that currently represents the benchmark across the grid and provides a clear advantage, particularly in qualifying. Looking further down the order, Racing Bulls are also not far behind and sit just two points behind Red Bull’s works team.
Despite a difficult Japanese Grand Prix for Haas, where Oliver Bearman was eliminated in Q1 due to a combination of setup issues and energy management during flying laps that cost him power, Esteban Ocon still managed to bring home a valuable point. It was a small but important result for morale, both for the team and for the French driver himself.
In the opening two races, Ocon had not been as competitive as his teammate, but at Suzuka the roles were reversed. Beyond the top-10 result, however, there is another key element worth highlighting, one that in some ways echoes the Mercedes-Ferrari dynamic. So far, Haas has shown it has a strong chassis, with tyre management becoming one of its main competitive strengths compared to its rivals.
After China, the American team was already identified as the standout surprise of the season, thanks to a chassis that appears to be the most solid in the midfield. However, it is not only about pure aerodynamic downforce. During the latest Grand Prix weekend, team principal Ayao Komatsu explained these characteristics and why the VF-26 is currently becoming a reference point in the midfield, especially from an aerodynamic perspective.
“I think the car, if we look at the chassis and the overall characteristics, is a coherent and solid package, a good baseline. When I say coherent, I mean that, as drivers would say, the car is consistent,” the Japanese team principal explained, referring to the fact that there is no major shift in balance between different types of corners, making the VF-26 highly predictable.
“Of course, what you feel in slow corners and high-speed corners is different, you don’t have exactly the same balance. But it’s not like you have a completely different limit in high-speed sections compared to low-speed ones. And throughout the cornering phase—from braking to entry, mid-corner, and exit—you don’t suddenly lose the front or the rear at a specific point.”
This does not mean the car is perfectly neutral, but this consistency in behaviour makes it much easier for the drivers to read, allowing them to extract performance and downforce more effectively. If the balance between slow and fast corners were more inconsistent, drivers would be forced to make compromises, sacrificing performance in one area to improve another.
With the exception of a few isolated cases, such as in free practice in Japan, the VF-26 has generally proven to be a highly usable and predictable car, especially for Oliver Bearman. On several occasions, he has emerged as the strongest midfield driver, including a strong fifth place finish in China that delivered a valuable 10 points for the championship standings.
There is still clearly a step to be made on the power unit side, not only from Ferrari as the supplier, but also from Haas itself. As Mercedes customer teams have demonstrated, the manufacturer that develops its own power unit naturally has a deeper level of expertise. However, Haas has also highlighted that Ferrari has been very open in sharing information.
Still, at the start of a new regulatory cycle—especially one as significant as 2026, where power units have changed more than many expect—new challenges are inevitable. “Regarding the power unit, energy management… I’m not talking about the Ferrari PU itself, I’m referring more to how the team is able to extract the maximum from it. And that is still a big challenge,” Komatsu added.
“We saw how different the racing was between Shanghai and Melbourne, and also in qualifying. The difficulties we had in qualifying in Shanghai were very specific to that circuit. We need to be on it straight from FP1, because if you start on the back foot it becomes very difficult to recover. I keep repeating it, but what we’ve shown so far is that when we start the weekend properly, every track session teaches us something, helps us improve, and that’s how you get the best out of the car and the drivers.”
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