What’s changed with Haas’ VF-25 package?

The Haas VF-25 is a very obvious derivative of last year’s car, even to the extent of staying with Ferrari’s 2024 push-rod front suspension rather than the new pull-rod.

Aerodynamically, it can be seen that the upper front part of the sidepod has been pared away to create a bigger undercut beneath. This will give a greater air pressure reduction, with the airflow rushing to fill the low-pressure area and thereby speeding up further, increasing downforce.

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The way the upper contours of the sidepod as it flows back are slightly more bulbous suggests that some radiator area has been moved back and up in order to create that bigger undercut at the front.

Although this implies an increase in the centre of gravity height, the team clearly will have verified that the lap-time gains from the better airflow will be worth more than any losses from the centre of gravity height increase.

Formula 1 header templates (36).png — Esteban Ocon drove the VF-25 in a private shakedown test last weekend

Haas’ Technical Director, Andrea De Zordo, and Head of Aerodynamics, Davide Paganelli, went into more detail about the key areas of focus with the car’s development – and what has changed compared to the VF-24 – after it hit the track for the first time at Silverstone.

“The main performance contribution comes from the aero side, so the main point of focus has been again trying to grow in that area as much as possible,” said De Zordo.

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“In parallel to that, every year we try to write down a point or quality of the car that isn’t good, so every year we try to improve the general quality of it, fixing small problems that may be a small thing, but all together improve the car.”

Paganelli added: “Our focus was the points of weakness identified in the VF-24. With the help of the performance team, we tried to work on the whole car as a package to be able to solve the issue.

Formula 1 header templates (35).png — Haas say their “main point of focus” has been to improve aerodynamic performance

“An indication of this is that we worked a lot on the rear of the car, and particularly the rear wing. I think that we’ve done a really good job on this for 2025.

“We believe the package we’ve designed is a really good one in terms of development. Obviously, we must check if the delivery is what we expect. If we’re able to see on track what we think we’re discovering in the wind tunnel, I think that we can have a massive boost from the very first race.”

He also revealed: “We’ve tried to design a car that can adapt to different races, as one of the weaknesses we had last year was not being able to perform at the same level at circuits with different characteristics.

“I think that we did a good job in trying to close this kind of gap as well as providing a configuration that is better in hotter races. We know at the beginning of the season we have some hot races, so we should be able to compete.”