The hints that Haas' livery launch reveals about its 2024 car

A mere day after 2024 calendars have been languidly turned to the second page, the usual flurry of Formula 1 launch proceedings have begun in earnest. And it's a low-key start this year, as Haas - last season's wooden-spoon custodian - has tentatively kicked off the reveals with its VF-24 livery launch.

First, some notes on the now-familiar colour scheme: the front of the car has been inverted, with the white and black swapped to create a more cohesive blend with the predominantly bare-carbon rear half. It could be cynically suggested that this is done to avoid the weight of paint, but it at least appears that the front end has been tickled with the spray guns to create a matte black finish.

It's a bit Paul Stoddart-era Minardi and, if the team is expecting to be at the back owing to the delayed development time cited by new team principal Ayao Komatsu, it would certainly suit the sensibilities of those who remember the early 2000s fondly.

But there's more to the renders issued by Haas than just the revised paint scheme, and it's not been simply transposed onto last year's car. The VF-24 shown is likely not representative of the finished article, so observations must be taken with more than a pinch of salt, but there are hints towards its design direction for 2024.

Last year's transition away from the Ferrari-esque bath-tub sidepods in Austin did not offer the step in performance that the team had hoped for, resulting in the drivers opting for a split in the aerodynamic package - Kevin Magnussen decided to stick with the newer, downwashing specification, while Nico Hulkenberg preferred the older parts. It was hardly a glowing endorsement of the redesign, but it at least offered the chance for the team to observe the differing configurations back to back for a few races.

Per the launch imagery, the downwashing sidepod format appears to be the way forward. Implementing this last season had its limits in the pre-existing architecture present on the VF-23, but these bounds will be eliminated with a new car. Thus, the bodywork can be tightened up, and the images demonstrate a shift towards the Red Bull school of thought in this area.

A shift towards the Red Bull school of thought is evident in the VF-24's sidepod configuration

Photo by: Haas F1 Team

This is particularly evident around the sidepod inlets, which have been made shorter and wider to allow the leading edge 'underbite' to be positioned further up. This develops into a greater undercut, allowing for the airflow to take the shortest path towards the diffuser area. This should limit the energy lost by the transit of air, as frictional losses are compensated for. An extra 'step' in the bargeboard-like outer floor fence should improve vorticity to increase the onset of energised flow.

There's also apparent variation in the top face of the sidepods; the legacy of switching from the bathtub design last year pushed Haas into exploring the gutter-like crevice along the top used by the likes of Aston Martin and Alpine, but the images suggest that this will be removed. Instead, this is just a simple curved surface with few topographical changes along the edge.

On last year's car, the area above this on the engine cover appeared to be somewhat bulkier than many of its contemporaries, but this has been apparently tightened up again to create a more pronounced Coke bottle section. The shrinking of the sidepod inlets has resulted in the overhead intake needing to be larger to offer the right mass flow rate of air to cool the powertrain components. The triangular shape remains to offer the structural demands required, but the overall intake is rounder to open up the inlet size.

These changes suggest that the team has paid attention to the internal layout to suit the prevailing direction of the 2022-introduced technical regulations, giving it more latitude with how it addresses the top-side aerodynamics. There are other hallmarks that satisfy some of the trends introduced last year, particularly with the presentation of the rear wing package.

The true gauge will be if the team has managed to unlock something inside that has alleviated its tyre-based grumbles

This is usually a pretty dynamic area of the car that is frequently changed to suit the efficiency and downforce requirements of each track but, for the usual glut of mid-range circuits, the same rear wing is usually employed with minor tweaks. Haas appears to have an exposed-tip design in its arsenal for 2024, something that multiple teams explored last season.

When the 2022 regulations emerged, the upper plane of the rear wing was supposed to merge directly into the endplates to mitigate the strength of vortices produced in F1's crusade against 'dirty air'. But the notion of developing a car that can be followed more easily is anathema to a performance-driven aerodynamicist, and the exploit here is to use a small separator that fulfils the regulation but leaves the tips exposed.

As the high pressure air on top of the wing seeks to equalise with the lower pressure air underneath, in a phenomenon similar to osmosis, the convergence at the tip will result in the generation of a vortex. This can be used to strengthen the power of the wing, handy when the use of a conventional endplate is not permitted by the regulations.

There are also minor detail changes to the front wing, particularly around the second wing plane; compared to last year, this tapers in towards the endplate to shorten its attachment to the vertical plate to assist with placement of air outwards. But there aren't too many more real differences here and it follows the form of the late-season wing used in 2023; four curved separators sit astride the upper two elements to improve that airflow direction, and the nose stops before the lowest element to ensure it can build up downforce in the spoon-shaped central section.

Haas appears to have an exposed-tip design in its arsenal for 2024

Photo by: Haas F1 Team

But again, there are caveats; Haas is showing the world what it wants to show, and it's likely that there are more elements wrapped into its 2024 design that it won't fancy displaying until the music stops in Bahrain. Plus, there's looking at a car, and then there's how it actually performs - and these rarely have much in the way of correlation.

If we take the launch renders at their word and assume this is how the VF-24 will look in Bahrain, then it might suggest that Haas has another year of toil on its hands. But that's an oversimplification, and the true gauge will be if the team has managed to unlock something inside that has alleviated its tyre-based grumbles.

Komatsu, after taking over from Guenther Steiner, has prognostications that 2024 might be something of a transitional year as he implements his own brand of management. Having aligned with team owner Gene Haas' belief that more can be extracted from its Ferrari-linked set-up and, only once that has been fully exploited, the team can start to look at other areas of improvement.

"If we get maximum out of how we set up, and then if then that becomes 'right, we cannot do anything better with the way we set up', then we can talk about that. That's my strategy, if you like," Komatsu explained during his unveiling as team boss. "But of course, have [deviating from the UK-Italy split] as a strategy medium-longer term, where you might want to go, but that's not my focus at this minute.

"I'm still very positive about what we can do with the current set-up. And then as we improve on the current set-up, certain things, I think, will become pretty obvious and natural, that [make us decide], OK, we need to diverge slightly from our original model in this way, we need to maybe invest in this way. So that will come up naturally, I think, rather than forcing it.

"We were not where we should be in 2023 - that's why we decided to make changes. But you cannot then suddenly just go for a huge leap. Because then 2024 will be a complete disaster, right? So we've got to improve the team in 2024, as I see as a transitional phase, and then whatever we learn during the course of the year in '24, I'm sure that will help us very clearly define what we're going to do in five years' time, eight years' time, 10 years' time."

Hidden betwixt Haas' 2023 struggles was a car that was very capable of delivering good results in qualifying, as evinced by Hulkenberg's Friday/Saturday heroics at various points throughout the year. If the American squad can retain that and augment it with a much stronger car in the races, then it might be enough to pull it off the back of the field.

But, with the competition so tight, it cannot afford another year where it waits all season for an update that delivers little. Pragmatism must reign, and Komatsu needs to deliver that in his directives from the top - or it'll be another wasted season, and Gene Haas' dedication will again be questioned by those both inside and out of F1.

Haas cannot afford another year in the doldrums - will the VF-24 lift it from the bottom of the grid?

Photo by: Haas F1 Team