After a catastrophic 2021 season for the structure, the Haas team is experiencing a renaissance in 2022. Kevin Magnussen’s 15 points from the first four World Championship races translates into the best start to the season for the American team since its debut. in Formula 1 in 2016.
However, the success has not sat well with all of its rivals, as some teams have raised concerns that Haas may be exploiting an illegal advantage thanks to its close association with Ferrari.
“Honestly, I only care about my work, what we do with the car. We try to be as perfect as possible to offer the drivers the best car. The rest of the things are on a different level than I am working on at the moment.
“We know the rules and we respect them. There is not much more to say about it,” Simone Resta explained. Furthermore, according to the Italian, there are many similar design concepts throughout the grid and there are not only similarities between Ferrari and Haas .
“You can look at the photos and see a lot of cars with a lot of similarities,” he explained. “I think everyone has to do a good job and focus on themselves. I guess in a team like ours, struggling in the midfield, maybe they didn’t expect it.”
Simone Resta is confident that Haas can build on its strong start to the season and be able to squeeze more performance out of the car, although team boss Gunther Steiner insists he won’t be making any short-term upgrades to the VF22.
“I agree with what Gunther says, there is still a lot to learn because the cars are completely different from last year and the tires are also different,” said Resta. “For example, we weren’t expecting porpoising in this way, so we need to understand that.”
“To be fair, there’s always a lot to discover in the cars in the first year of a new regulation,” he explained as one of the reasons Haas won’t rush updates and wait for the right moment. “There is still a lot of potential.”
Although the team had a difficult weekend in Australia failing to find the right set-up for the car, Resta believes that the VF22 does not have many weak points, as it has scored points in the rest of the races on the course.
“Overall the drivers are happy with the car. If anything we probably have to try and improve it a bit on the high-speed stages compared to our rivals. But overall the car works well in all conditions.”
