Why Haas F1 won’t use Toyota’s wind tunnel des...

Haas will proceed to work in Ferrari’s Components 1 wind tunnel regardless of signing a high-profile technical partnership with Toyota final 12 months.

Though Toyota’s F1 workforce got here and went expensively throughout the 2000s with out securing a single victory, its wind tunnel in Cologne was as soon as thought-about so leading edge that different F1 outfits used it as opposed to their very own. 

Nonetheless, Haas has determined to stay to the identical Ferrari tunnel that it has used since its entry into F1 in 2016.

The choice is a strategic one which entails Haas’s seek for a brand new HQ wherein it is going to be in a position to rationalise efficiency work at present break up between the US, the UK and Italy. This may even embody the combination of a brand new driver-in-loop simulator Haas will construct as a part of Toyota’s funding.

To determine an aerodynamics group positioned in Cologne, or have one commuting there, would add prices and make logistics extra moderately than simpler. The Toyota tunnel additionally has a selected shortcoming which immediately impacts analysis into floor impact.

“By no means is a powerful phrase,” workforce boss Ayao Komatsu instructed Motorsport.com and a choose group of media throughout a pre-season briefing, “however for the foreseeable future, now we have no plans to maneuver out of the Maranello wind tunnel.”

Following Toyota’s withdrawal from F1 on the finish of 2009, a number of groups – together with McLaren, Williams, Power India (now Aston Martin) and even Ferrari – shifted analysis into Toyota’s tunnel, though in Ferrari’s case it was a short lived measure whereas it refitted its personal tunnel, which is housed inside a spectacular Renzo Piano-designed construction close to the rear entrance to the Maranello manufacturing facility. Presently solely the Cadillac workforce is working in Cologne.

On the time, Toyota’s tunnel loved a big benefit over others as a result of it provided Particle Picture Velocimetry (PIV), a way wherein tiny particles illuminated by a laser sheet are used as an alternative of smoke to offer a visible illustration of the move area round a automotive. PIV is taken into account extra correct as a result of the tracer particles exert much less of an affect over airflow than smoke particles.

Now, although, most groups have upgraded their amenities to incorporate PIV and a focus has shifted to the type of the rolling highway. Within the new ground-effect period, the place the vehicles run nearer to the bottom, the interplay between the automotive ground and observe floor has turn into a key efficiency differentiator.

Final summer season Ferrari shut down its F1 wind tunnel to put in a brand new ‘rubberised’ rolling highway which, whereas much less sturdy than the standard metal belt, extra precisely displays the feel of a observe floor. Haas is now having fun with the advantages of Ferrari’s work, whereas Toyota must undertake the identical analysis and funding programme to supply the identical aggressive commonplace.

It has not escaped the eye of anybody in F1 that the groups main the way in which within the 2024 constructors’ championship and seemingly encountering the fewest vital aerodynamic issues via the season – McLaren and Ferrari – each have lately upgraded wind tunnel amenities.

“For me, it’s a win-win scenario, as a result of us and Ferrari are after all combating in the identical championship, so no matter particular concern you’ve in your wind tunnel {hardware}, which is said to the specifics of the [ground effect] rules on this technology, Ferrari is doing the analysis, they’re addressing it, so we take the profit with out us doing the analysis,” mentioned Komatsu.

“I don’t see any level in us transferring out of the Maranello simulator to go to the Toyota wind tunnel which at present doesn’t have [a ‘rubberised’ floor]. OK, Andretti is utilizing it, however they’re not competing in F1 but.

“So for the foreseeable future, I don’t see any level in transferring out of the Maranello wind tunnel.”

Moreover potential efficiency benefits – though Haas’s 2025 automotive will function fewer parts purchased in from Ferrari’s 2025 bundle, notably the entrance suspension – sustaining a presence in Maranello provides a component of logistical continuity as Haas appears to do extra efficiency analysis ‘beneath one roof’. It’s understood that quite a few choices for a brand new UK HQ have been introduced to workforce proprietor Gene Haas on the finish of January.

This facility will home the brand new driver-in-loop simulator coming as a part of Toyota’s funding. Presently if Haas needs to make use of Ferrari’s simulator, personnel should journey from the UK.

“In the event you take a look at the simulator, final 12 months we did undoubtedly no more than 15 days,” mentioned Komatsu. “What different groups solely do 15 days of simulator working?

“Through the race weekend, we don’t do any simulator working in any respect. Once more, I believe everyone else does.

“So all of these capabilities, we haven’t received. And if now we have received the simulator in Maranello, that’s the solely simulator that now we have entry to. We merely can’t do it.

“We have now to ship individuals from right here as a result of the Maranello workplace is basically designed for circuitously operational efficiency individuals. So that’s the reason having the simulator right here when it comes to effectivity could be night time and day.”