The American team acknowledged at the presentation of the new VF-22 that the renderings were from a very early stage of development, so it was no surprise that the car that appeared in Barcelona was very different.
The front wing and nose are much more developed, with the mainplane separated and positioned in front of the nose to help bring airflow under the chassis, which has narrowed in cross-section at the bottom (blue arrow) .
The front wing flaps are not as well shaped as the ones seen in the renders, with the same design for their entire length.
This causes the adjustable section in the middle of the two upper fins to provide a noticeable split with the section in the nose, as the angular and triangular spacer (green arrow) will certainly create a vortex and enhance airflow. down.
The front wing endplate is also different to designs we’ve seen from other teams, with Haas going for a wave-like leading edge (yellow line) that affects the entire geometry of the endplate.
Along with this, we see that the trailing edge is also shaped differently and is paired with a fork-like inward-dipping plane (red arrow).
That design is very interesting as Haas has had to work hard to stay within the confines of the rules and at the same time create a design that will clearly create pressure that is in contrast to what the regulations envisage. This will also cause a different response in the other flow structures created by the various surfaces around it.
The tunnel entrance in the floor of the car is shaped similarly to what we saw at Mercedes, with the section closest to the chassis located at a much higher height than the outer section.
Where the two designs deviate, however, is in the ground markings, with Haas opting to place them quite a bit further forward but similar in height to the rim wing.
The front edge of the ground has also been reshaped upwards to create “a scroll”, which creates a section that resembles a skirt in front of the rear tire, something the team is using to help direct airflow through the face of the tire.
The VF-22 ‘s sidepods are also different from the renders released by the team, much more akin to Ferrari’s. However, Haas ‘ own DNA is also thrown into the mix.
They have gone for a more conventional shape, as the chassis tapers outwards, allowing the team to capitalize on a similar convex shape in the midsection, with a high-waisted tail.
These attributes cause a mid-sized sag under the sidepod inlets, with the body tapering towards the ground to divert the airflow outlet towards the bottleneck region at the rear of the car.
As on Ferrari , the top surface of the sidepod features a set of cooling gills, although Haas appears to have a different side section that will allow it to quickly alter the amount of cooling depending on conditions.
Meanwhile, attached to the side of the cockpit bodywork, we find some protruding Viking horn-shaped blades (blue arrow) that probably help redirect the airflow coming out of the halo.
Something similar can be seen next to the engine air intake (green arrow), something that is also similar to the Ferrari design, while retaining the triangular ring.
The engine cover also features a couple of interesting fixes, such as the ‘louvered’ cooling outlet on the side of the cover (red arrow), prompting the team to create a kind of shark fin.
As we see on the Ferrari F1-75, the wastegate pipe is exposed before it joins the main exhaust outlet just as far as the rules allow, whereas other teams have opted to do so much sooner.
