By Mark Gero
With a history of being in the sport for nearly ten years, the Haas F1 Team launched their new YF-26 car Monday online with a brand-new sponsor in the name of Toyota Gazoo Racing, which replaces the Dallas, Texas based MoneyGram organization, which had been the main sponsor for the last three seasons.
With the Japanese manufacturer as the main sponsor, Haas now has gone back to the mainly white car that has been with them in the past, which began with the famous white, black and silver livery, which changed to all black with the Rich energy sponsor before returning to red, white and blue for the Russian based Uralkali, which ended with that nation’s invasion of Ukraine.
But eventually, the team found a permanent deal with Toyota, which now occupies the main sponsor of the car.
The car now is nearly all white and is officially known as the TGR Haas F1 Team, which has retained drivers Esteban Ocon of France, and British sensation Oliver Bearman. The sponsor could change things for some Japanese drivers such as Rio Hirakawa, who tested many times for the team and could put other drivers from the rising sun into a possible drive for the upcoming years.
But for now, while such teams as Audi and the American rival from Cadillac are testing their cars already with a shakedown at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain, Haas has decided to wait until the five-day test at the same circuit later in the month. And this to Team Principal Ayao Komatsu is the way to go.
It feels almost a bit surreal to be unveiling a new car this early in the year, but it’s not any less exciting venturing into a new F1 campaign – especially one with such a change in regulations,” Komatsu said.
We’re fully focused on being ready for shakedown week in Barcelona. It’s been a monumental effort from everyone on the team to work with such a tight turnaround time from the end of last season to putting cars on track in January.
It goes without saying that after so much talk, we can’t wait to see how these cars will perform and what we’ll face as we then progress through our test programmes ahead of Australia.
Track time is going to be crucial through Spain and Bahrain, and while we know there’s going to be challenges along the way, we do this because we’re passionate about Formula 1.”
Haas is the only team apart from Cadillac, who are in their first season, who in the last nine years of racing, have never had a podium placing, with the closest that the team has achieved was the fourth-place finish by Bearman last year in Mexico.
And hopefully, this could change with better back from the most popular car company in the world.
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