The Haas VF-18 is a

Formula One car A Formula One car (also known as an F1 car) is a single-seat, open-cockpit, open-wheel formula racing car with substantial front and rear wings, and an engine positioned behind the driver, intended to be used in competition at Formul ...

Dallara Dallara is an Italian race car manufacturer, founded by its current President, Gian Paolo Dallara. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, in 1972 in his native village of Varano de' Melegari (Parma), Italy he created "D ...

for the

Haas F1 Team Haas Formula LLC, competing as Haas F1 Team, is an American-licensed Formula One racing team established by NASCAR Cup Series team co-owner Gene Haas in April 2014. The team originally intended to make its debut at the start of the season b ...

to compete in the

2018 FIA Formula One World Championship The 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship was the motor racing championship for Formula One cars and the 69th running of the Formula One World Championship. Formula One is recognised by the governing body of international motorsport, the F� ...

. The car was driven by

Romain Grosjean Romain David Jeremie Grosjean (; born 17 April 1986) is a Swiss-French professional racing driver, competing under the French flag in the NTT IndyCar Series, driving the No. 28 Honda for Andretti Autosport. Grosjean had previously spent nine ...

and

Kevin Magnussen Kevin Jan Magnussen (born 5 October 1992) is a Danish racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Haas F1 Team. He is the son of four-time Le Mans winner and former Formula One driver Jan Magnussen. Kevin Magnussen came up through McLa ...

and made its competitive début at the 2018 Australian Grand Prix.

Design and development

The focus of the VF-18's design was to produce a more stable chassis than its predecessor, the VF-17, with the aim of building a car capable of producing more consistent performances between rounds. To do this, Dallara worked to reduce the weight of the chassis as much as possible, allowing Haas more freedom in using ballast to influence the car's weight distribution. The car was subject to scrutiny following its performances in pre-season testing and free practice sessions at the 2018 Australian Grand Prix. Questions were raised over similarities between the VF-18 and the

Ferrari SF70H The Ferrari SF70H is a Formula One racing car designed and constructed by Scuderia Ferrari to compete during the 2017 Formula One season. The car was driven by Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen. It made its competitive début at the 2017 A ...

, the car entered by Haas' partner

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

in as the sporting and technical regulations ban the use of "customer cars", or cars developed by one constructor and sold on to another team. Team principal Gunther Steiner dismissed the claims, responding to critics by arguing that the team had only purchased parts from Ferrari that the FIA had approved for sale. This was the first Haas car to achieve a fastest lap.

Complete Formula One results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

VF-18 Fighting Squadron 18 (VF-18) was an aviation unit of the United States Navy which served aboard in the fall of 1944. It was the second squadron to bear the designation VF-18. Over the course of two and a half months of strike operations from 6 Se ...

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