The Haas Formula 1 team have released images of the revised livery it will run this weekend for its home race, the United States Grand Prix.
After confirming its drivers would sport special race suits earlier this week, America’s sole F1 outfit has shown the design its VF-23 cars will adorn at the Circuit of the Americas.
The team will retain its customary black-and-white colour scheme but has added the stars and stripes of the United States flag to the side of its 2023 charger for this one round.
Furthermore, Haas has announced it will celebrate the special occasion with the “special” tagline of “we the people”, which forms the opening line of the Constitution of the United States.
Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner states it elected to embrace its American roots amid the backdrop of the FIA formally accepting Andretti’s proposal to join the F1 grid recently.
“One thing that is different this season, is our look and feel is encapsulated under the tagline ‘We The People’ – the first line of the American Constitution,” Steiner said.
“There’s obviously a lot of talk about American teams right now, but we’re still currently the only American team on the Formula 1 grid.”
“Many have said for years that we haven’t exploited that fact, but I’ve always said that’s because we want to earn credibility within the paddock first.
“We’ve been through a lot in our short time, but along the way have amassed a very loyal, and growing fanbase, and we want to recognize them.”
Steiner added that the altered livery provided “some nice marketing, but anyone who works with my team knows how passionate they are, and how funny and genuine our fans are. This race is dedicated to them as, we the people, make Haas what it is.”
Aside from an updated livery, Haas’ prospects this weekend will also be bolstered by the addition of a sizeable Red Bull-inspired upgrade package.
Haas were overhauled by Alfa Romeo last time out in Qatar, dropping the Kannapolis-based camp to ninth in the Constructors’ Championship with five rounds remaining.
The team will be hopeful that its updated car can inspire an upturn in form, having only collected a solitary point across the previous eight rounds.
Haas’ spate of new parts will see improvements made to the floor, engine cover, sidepod inlet, sidepods, quarter panel and padding gills.
Regarding the updates, Steiner explained: “The upgrade on the VF-23 is aerodynamic. We changed the concept of the car because what we started with, because of the new regulations last year, we couldn’t make any more gains performance-wise.
“Creating more downforce and less drag, it just wasn’t there anymore, so we needed to change concept, to which is commonly known as the “Red Bull concept” or the “downwash concept”.
“It is a substantial update, and we’re able to do this within the cost cap because we didn’t have any updates at the beginning of the season because again, going back, we couldn’t find any performance that we could make parts to put on the car.”
Kevin Magnussen details that the revisions are being made with the performance of next year’s car in mind rather than searching for immediate gains this weekend.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t hope it will give us a big improvement, but I think there’s actually a second element to bringing this upgrade which is to research for next year,” Magnussen stated.
“I think we’re all secretly hoping it performs better than what we currently have but actually the bigger target with this is, is the research and the learning we can do for next year’s car.
“I think it’s been clear that in very specific circumstances our car can perform, but it’s a too narrow window and we need to broaden it and make it more user-friendly and compliant with a bigger variety of tracks and conditions. Hopefully we’ll be able to follow easier and be more friendly to tyres.”
Meanwhile, Red Bull is also set to unveil a new livery ahead of this weekend’s racing action getting underway on Friday.
The recently-crowned World Champions made a pledge before the campaign that it would run designs created by fans at the three rounds scheduled to be held in the USA in 2023.
So far, only the Miami Grand Prix has taken place, with Las Vegas making its F1 bow in mid-November, one week before the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
