Haas Aims To Combat 2024 'Weakness' With VF-25's Overhauled Rear Section

The Haas F1 team is focused on achieving consistent performance throughout the 2025 season, implementing key upgrades to its VF-25 F1 car, including a considerable overhaul of the rear section. The American outfit aims to build on the progress made last season by ensuring the 2025 car performs competitively on circuits where it previously struggled.

The team has arrived in Bahrain, with the VF-25 hitting the track for a filming day on Monday, just two days before pre-season testing scheduled from the 26th of February to the 28th. Haas also enters the season with a refreshed driver lineup, featuring Esteban Ocon and rookie Oliver Bearman.

Back on track in Bahrain 🤩🇧🇭#HaasF1 #F1 pic.twitter.com/Rc7N22TvnH
— MoneyGram Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) February 24, 2025

Davide Paganelli, Haas' head of aerodynamics, explained that the car's rear section was the main area of focus for the outfit, and the results, he says, could offer a considerable advantage to performance if the wind tunnel data matches the car's track performance. He said:

“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.

“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.”

The 2024 season saw the VF-24 display a strong showing on certain circuits such as the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone, where Nico Hulkenberg finished sixth. However, the team struggled to finish within the points on select circuits due to a lack of consistent performance. Paganelli aims to eliminate this drawback on the VF-25 by making it an all-rounder car that can adapt to different circuits under different climatic conditions. With the initial races of the season being in hotter regions, Paganelli is confident that the team should be able to compete. He added:

“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 be able to perform at the same level at circuits with different characteristics. [sic]

“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.”