Haas have had a trickier start to 2025 than they were expecting, with the Albert Park Circuit exposing an inherent flaw of their VF-25 car that hadn’t been seen, at least to that degree, during pre-season testing.
Credit: LAT Images / Haas F1 Media.
The Melbourne track’s high speed turns and bumpy surface caused the Haas to oscillate in an almost porpoising-like effect, making it practically undriveable, especially so through turns 9-10. The lack of consistent downforce through the higher speed sections forced Ocon and Bearman to either risk it to be on the edge, or to ease off and sacrifice lap time.
This all comes back to the concept spoken to by several teams in the pre-season phase – usable downforce. While the Haas doesn’t lack total downforce, according to their wind tunnel and aerodynamic testing, the drivers couldn’t use it over the lap to improve performance, rendering it pointless if this confounding effect cannot be removed.
Things were so bad in Australia that it forced team principal, Ayao Komatsu, to question whether anything was broken on the car as he concluded it was a “big” and “severe” issue…
However in Shanghai it appeared, at least from the outside, that this problem had dissipated. Though the Sprint format presented a challenge to the team in terms of getting the car setup right, they used this to alter both cars in the break in parc ferme and “both drivers were much happier with the car” for qualifying and the grand prix, according to Komatsu.
While this then manifested in a double points finish for the team following the three disqualifications, Komatsu remained cautious about the underlying issue with the car as it seemed the resurfaced, smoother Shanghai International Circuit had masked the oscillations. It allowed the team to run the VF-25 closer to the ground to maximise the ground effect without any bumps causing the problem to resurface.
“I’m not kidding myself to say we’ve solved the problem – we haven’t,” he said.
“So certain circuits we go to, we’re still gonna have a big problem – but, when we can operate the car in the way we want, thanks to the circuit characteristics, this is what we can do. We delivered today.”
This caution, and the fact that the high speed, technical circuit of Suzuka was up next, prompted the team to speedily prepare a floor upgrade in search for a solution, despite Komatsu saying it would take them several weeks to address the issue back in Melbourne.
While the upgrade was validated in the wind tunnel, the team didn’t have sufficient time to complete a full CFD test programme – making it a huge risk, yet one they couldn’t afford not to take.
“It’s a judgment call. But to me we had no option,” Komatsu said. “The scale of the issue in Melbourne was huge. We were the slowest car by country a mile. So we had to do it.”
He also marked FP1 as a “key” determinant of whether the risk would have been worth it, and speaking afterwards he was dubious as to the impact it had had:
“We’ve been running different floors across the cars and if the answer was completely conclusive, we would have equalised the cars for FP2. But to be honest, it’s not. So we’re going to carry on our test programme in FP2.”
Unfortunately for this test programme, FP2 was plagued with red flags making it difficult for anyone to make significant progress in understanding their cars. With a further red flag in FP3, Haas went into qualifying with very little, if any, knowledge of the impact of this floor upgrade on their soft tyre, single lap pace. This seemed to impact Esteban Ocon more as he struggled for pace and failed to get out of Q1, while Ollie Bearman finished in the top 10.
“I didn’t expect to go to Q2 either, so I was pretty happy to be in Q3 at the end,” Bearman said. “I don’t think any of us expected that after everything that happened so far this weekend.”
“I hadn’t actually got a lap on the board on softs since FP1. So, to get out there and really build it up and have a good qualifying… I’m really proud of the team and myself as well.”
Komatsu was similarly astounded by the performance: “If somebody told me this morning that we could get into Q3, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
“Ollie’s done a fantastic job. But the team, from last night to this morning, then between FP3 and qualifying… I think we worked really, really well to get performance out of the car.”
Komatsu then revealed that despite the limited running, FP2 had offered the team the chance to see the impact of the upgrade; “Like I said before, we took some risks to bring the floor over here. But then in FP2, the data was completely clear. It did work, so that was really pleasing.”
Not only are Haas starting the Japanese grand prix in their highest grid spot of the year so far, but also with promising results pointing to the risk they took having paid off.
“Every single time we send the car out, we’re learning something, we’re improving,” Komatsu remarked after qualifying, and the grand prix will represent their most significant chance at proving that the risk they took was worth it.
