Why Haas's shocking 2019 should have F1 worried

Haas led the midfield during pre-season testing. In Australia, Kevin Magnussen finished a 'Class B'-winning sixth and only a loose wheel after a pitstop stopped Romain Grosjean following him home.

At the second race in Bahrain, Haas qualified at the front of the midfield, but a poor showing in the race was a sign of the season to come.

Early on, the problem was ascribed to the troublesome Pirelli tyres, but that was more symptom than the core ailment. Mid-season, Haas started to roll back on upgrades introduced in the fifth race in Spain on Grosjean's car, eventually finishing the year with both cars in a hybrid configuration that was close to the Melbourne spec.

A car that was fast and good enough to reach Q3 in the closing stages of the season ended up a distant ninth in the constructors' championship, ahead only of Williams, with just 28 points. Why? At heart, this was an aerodynamic problem.

At high speeds the car worked well, but at lower speeds rear downforce wasn't generated as intended. Eventually, the team traced this to a problem with the aero concept, compounded by the fact that the windtunnel/CFD-to-track correlation wasn't as hoped.

On top of that, the difficulties with tyres made things worse and, even when the car did qualify well, it vanished in the races. That was particularly true on tracks where the loss of rear downforce led to more sliding, with the result that the moaning drivers couldn't do much to stem the losses.

That Haas was among the teams that opted for the loaded outboard front wing, which gives more overall load but creates some challenges with managing the wheelwake, played a part in this. But others made it work, so was the harder-to-master concept combined with trouble with the tools the root of the trouble?

Haas's struggles to be competitive and question marks over F1's financial model mean its ongoing participation is not a given

"Yes, I think so," says chief race engineer Ayao Komatsu. "Initially, we were very happy because in testing we were very competitive. The problem only became obvious when we got to hotter tracks such as Bahrain, Paul Ricard and Spielberg.

"The Barcelona race was OK because the track temperature was very low. Once the temperature got to 27-30C, which is not that high, the consistency just went as we could not keep the rear tyre working with the characteristics we had.

"It's a question of in which phase of the corner we don't have the load, that's the problem. In the braking phase, it's not really there as it should be. Then we stretch the tyre surface so when you get on the power from mid-corner, we are very weak.

"The front end is actually pretty good, but that gives you a problem with balance as you have so much more oversteer, which when the tyres are new in qualifying is great. But in the race you can't keep the rears alive."

The drivers spent most of the year chasing a balance that was not often there. Grosjean was adamant that the Barcelona aerodynamic upgrade had made the car worse, so the drivers reverted to the early-season spec at the British Grand Prix.

In desperate need of data from the race, the duo collided on the first lap and retired.

But Haas did understand its problems, even if it only partially fixed them. A diffuser tweak delighted Grosjean on Friday at Abu Dhabi, until Valtteri Bottas clattered into it, making it unfit for use.

Haas is only committed for one more year and, with the Rich Energy farrago costing it sponsorship dollars, its struggles to be competitive and question marks over F1's financial model, its ongoing participation is not a given.

As it's the only new-team success story of recent times, that's a dire indictment of F1.