Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner has revealed that the team has ceased development of their 2016 car, switching focus to next year.
The team has enjoyed a fairly strong maiden Formula One campaign, with four points finishes from the first 11 races. But Steiner has now said that the team are concentrating on their second year in the sport.
"We are full-time on the '17 car," he said . "We are not doing anything with the ‘16 car any more. Where we are with the ‘17 car, we think we are in a good place, but until after we go out next year at the first test, we don’t know because other people are developing."
"We are always trying to hit a moving target, but everybody’s confident we are getting there," he continued. "Wind tunnel sessions are filled with parts to try, we are doing CFD, we are maxed out on everything as allowed by the FIA and everybody seems to be confident that we are on the right path."
A major rules revision will come into force next year with aerodynamic regulation changes, wider tyres, and the abandonment of the use of tokens for engine development.
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Posts: 625
I think this highlights the issues of "customer" teams. Haas may come up with a decent 2017 car, but their best shot at points will be early in the season. After that, they will slide again just like this year when their rivals out develop them. There must be a tipping point financially which would make it better bang for the buck to have your own in-house chassis and aero team. I mean how do you correlate your track info with a 1/3rd party manufacturer? Can't be easy...