Imola update will be final upgrade for Haas’ 2021 F1 car

The “last step” of Haas’ 2021 Formula 1 car will be introduced at the second race of the season at Imola and act as the team’s sole development for the year.

The American outfit finished ninth in the constructors’ championship last year and is fielding an all-rookie line-up consisting of Formula 2 champion Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin in 2021.

Haas decided not to spend its two development tokens when designing its VF-21 2021 F1 car, believing it would be a “pointless” investment, with the team instead focusing its resources on developing its car for the 2022 season when sweeping regulation changes come into play.

“Everything we planned to have here is here,” Haas team principal Guenther Steiner explained ahead of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

“We had a late development which we will introduce at Imola but that’s the last step of this car.

“There will be some smaller parts for Imola, no big changes, to be honest. It’s just some small parts which we didn’t get ready in time but we knew that since some months that they wouldn’t be ready.

“It’s not that they were late or anything. We will have some parts for Imola and then we don’t change the car anymore, as I said before."

Haas still made some aerodynamic updates to its 2021 F1 car, including floor changes to meet new rules aimed at reducing downforce and slowing cars down this year amid the significant carry-over of parts between last season and this one.

“The floor has changed, there’s a different front wing,” Steiner said.

“The bodywork has changed because there was some changes to the engine, obviously, and the brakes… [There have been] quite some quite big changes if you compare it with last year’s car.”

Steiner described Haas’ approach to 2021 as being a “transitional year” rather than a holding pattern.

“I would say we are more than surviving, I see it as a transitional year,” he added. “We are surviving, that’s not a problem.

“Obviously we focus on next year as for us there was no big point for us where we were last year to put a lot of effort into 2021 knowing that this regulation comes to an end and we have to for 2022 develop a new car.

“We said to make a step backwards to make two forwards, that is our year, a transitional year, a holding pattern as you call it going racing, but we are not holding back on developing for 2022.

“So I wouldn’t call it a holding pattern - that means you stop everything. It’s the opposite, we are actually developing quite heavily for 2022. We are up and running for 2022, we just decided to go that way.”