2024 F1 season preview: A brand new period dawns for Haas

Effectively, are we definitely glad we waited to start out this sequence.

Starting in the present day we’re wanting again — and beginning to look forward — within the Method 1 world. Working our means up by way of the grid we’ll look again at how every workforce fared in 2023, in addition to looking at their prospects for the 2024 F1 season.

We begin on the backside of the desk with Haas, the lone American workforce on the grid, a minimum of for now. To say this was an underwhelming yr for Haas could be an understatement. Previous to the beginning of 2023 the choice was made to interchange Mick Schumacher with veteran driver Nico Hülkenberg, and with Kevin Magnussen already within the fold, that gave Haas two skilled drivers for the 2023 marketing campaign.

The outcome?

Simply 12 factors, and a last-place end within the Constructors’ Championship.

Then got here the thunderbolt because the 2024 calendar yr started. Earlier this month it was introduced that Guenther Steiner, the one Staff Principal Haas has ever recognized and one of many driving forces behind the workforce, was out. Steiner grew to become a well known determine within the F1 world due to his star activate the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive, and you’ll make sure Netflix executives are questioning the place to shift the main focus going ahead.

2023 spotlight: Canadian Grand Prix Qualifying

On a Saturday afternoon in June, every little thing broke proper for Haas and Hülkenberg.

Finally the story for Haas in 2023 was the distinction between their qualifying tempo, and their race tempo. The VF-23 was typically robust throughout qualifying, notably in Hülkenberg’s palms, however races have been a a lot completely different story.

On that afternoon in Montreal, the groups have been coping with moist situations, which made technique moderately difficult. In the course of the third and closing qualifying session, Max Verstappen went out early and laid down a lap which ultimately put him on pole. However proper earlier than extra rain got here — which might finally result in an early finish to Q3 — Hülkenberg put in a thunderous lap of his personal, which put him into P2 and on the entrance row alongside Verstappen.

Nonetheless, very similar to their season as an entire, the enjoyment was short-lived. Hülkenberg was hit with a three-place penalty for a failure to decelerate below a pink flag, which got here out when Oscar Piastri hit the wall. That meant that Hülkenberg began the race in P5, and he finally completed out of the factors.

It was that type of season for the workforce.

Photograph by Emmanuele Ciancaglini/Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Pictures

2023 lowlight: Monaco Grand Prix

The streets of Monte Carlo have been something however glamorous for Haas this season. grew to become one thing of a home of horrors for Haas. Each Magnussen and Hülkenberg didn’t advance out of Q1, and began behind the sphere on a circuit the place overtaking comes at a premium. Magnussen began the Monaco Grand Prix in P17, whereas Hülkenberg was behind him in P18.

Issues didn’t precisely enhance within the race. Magnussen made contact with Lance Stroll halfway by way of the race, after which later he crashed once more, forcing an early retirement from the race. As for Hülkenberg, he got here into contact early with Logan Sargeant and was ultimately given a five-second penalty for inflicting the collision. Then he was hit with a ten-second penalty, when he didn’t serve that preliminary penalty correctly.

Hülkenberg was ultimately categorized in P17, with Magnussen in P19.

“We tried every little thing attainable in the present day to get into the factors. There’s no level in ending twelfth, thirteenth or fourteenth so we determined to take a raffle on the finish staying out after which pitting for full wets as you by no means know what can occur, but it surely didn’t work out,” mentioned Steiner after the Monaco Grand Prix. “The race was misplaced yesterday in qualifying, and we knew that if one thing particular doesn’t occur, we can’t get into the factors. We tried, all people was working arduous to get it carried out. We received a penalty – we don’t know what for on lap 1 – once more, inconsistency from the FIA there, but it surely appears to be what now’s regular.”

Outlook for 2024

What a distinction every week makes.

Huge adjustments have come to Haas in the previous couple of days, not solely with the departure of Steiner, but additionally the departure of Simone Resta, the workforce’s Technical Director. Ayao Komatsu steps into Steiner’s function, having beforehand served because the workforce’s Director of Engineering.

That transfer shines a lightweight on the place the workforce wants to enhance.

As famous above, one-lap tempo was not the issue for Haas, however race tempo definitely was. Waiting for their 2024 challenger, they should do higher on this division, and to keep away from the tire degradation points that plagued them a season in the past. When studies of Resta’s departure surfaced, there was hypothesis {that a} distinction between Resta and Gene Haas, the workforce’s proprietor, was on the coronary heart of the state of affairs. Resta needed to deal with growth for the VF-23 throughout final season, whereas Haas needed to forge forward with a imaginative and prescient just like Pink Bull’s RB19 for the 2024 marketing campaign.

When you find yourself the one signing the checks, you get to make the large selections.

They’ve two succesful, veteran drivers, and a automobile that at occasions carried out nicely on Saturdays. If they will type issues out for Sundays, they will climb out of the cellar.

If not …

Photograph by Charles Coates/Getty Pictures

Individual below essentially the most strain to carry out in 2024: Ayao Komatsu

Till lately Kevin Magnussen’s identify was listed right here.

Hülkenberg’s return shined a brand new mild on the motive force lineup at Haas. Again in 2022 Magnussen out-qualified Schumacher in 16 of the 22 races, however that quantity was flipped a season in the past, with Hülkenberg popping out forward 15-7 in qualifying in opposition to his teammate. If Haas desires to climb out of the cellar, they’ll want a bit extra from Magnussen.

However that every one went out the window with the sacking of Steiner. Ayao Komatsu is getting into large sneakers right here, and the highlight can be on him all season lengthy.