Haas VF-16
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The Haas VF-16 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 ...
designed and built by Italian chassis manufacturer
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 ...
on behalf of
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 ...
for use in the
2016 Formula One season The 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 70th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)'s Formula One motor racing. It featured the 67th Formula One World Championship, a motor racing championship for Formula On ...
. The car was powered by Ferrari's 2016-specification power unit, the Ferrari 061. It was driven by former Lotus driver
Romain Grosjean Romain David Jeremie Grosjean (; born 17 April 1986) is a Swiss-French professional Auto racing, racing driver, competing under the French flag in the NTT IndyCar Series, driving the No. 28 Honda for Andretti Autosport. Grosjean had previously ...
and
Esteban Gutiérrez Esteban Manuel Gutiérrez Gutiérrez (; born 5 August 1991) is a Mexican racing driver currently representing Mercedes in Formula One, Formula E and esports and Inter Europol Competition in World Endurance Championship. Previously from 2013 ...
, who has made his return to competition after spending the 2015 season as a testing and development driver for Ferrari. The car made its competitive debut at the
2016 Australian Grand Prix The 2016 Australian Grand Prix (formally known as the 2016 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One auto racing, motor race that was held on 20 March 2016 in Melbourne, Victoria, Melbourne. The race was contested over fifty-seve ...
. This was the first Formula One car to use
Pennzoil Pennzoil is an American motor oil brand currently owned by Shell plc. The former Pennzoil Company had been established in 1913 in Pennsylvania, being active in business as an independent firm until it was acquired by Shell in 2002, becoming a bra ...
lubricant.


Development history


Naming

The origin of naming the car "VF-16" is derived from the first CNC machine manufactured by
Haas Automation Haas Automation, Inc is an American machine tool builder headquartered in Oxnard, California. The company designs and manufactures lower cost machine tools and specialized accessory tooling, mostly computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipme ...
, the VF-1, launched in 1988. The "V" stands for vertical, which is an industry standard designation for a vertical mill.
Gene Haas Eugene Francis Haas (born November 12, 1952) is the American founder, president, and sole stockholder of Haas Automation, a CNC machine tool manufacturer. He also has a presence in motorsports, having founded NASCAR team Haas CNC Racing (now kn ...
, founder of Haas Automation, added "F1" to the name to unofficially designate it as the company's "Very First One".


Design

Italian chassis manufacturer
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 ...
was contracted to design the VF-16 in December 2014, shortly after Haas' entry was accepted to the grid. Team founder
Gene Haas Eugene Francis Haas (born November 12, 1952) is the American founder, president, and sole stockholder of Haas Automation, a CNC machine tool manufacturer. He also has a presence in motorsports, having founded NASCAR team Haas CNC Racing (now kn ...
chose to structure the team as a client of Scuderia Ferrari, and as a result, the VF-16 shares several elements—including the gearbox and suspension—with Ferrari's 2016 entry, the SF16-H.


Testing

The VF-16 was unveiled at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya ahead of the first pre-season test. Its early testing phase was overshadowed by a front wing failure, fuel feed problems and complications surrounding a turbo failure.


In competition

The VF-16 made its competitive début at the Australian Grand Prix, where it made an inauspicious start to its season when Romain Grosjean collided with
Rio Haryanto Rio Haryanto (born 22 January 1993) is an Indonesian racing driver and a former Formula One driver for Manor during 2016 season. He last competed in the 2019-20 Asian Le Mans Series and in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia for T2 Motorsp ...
in pit lane during practice. Both Grosjean and Esteban Gutiérrez were eliminated early in qualifying, with both VF-16s occupying the penultimate row of the grid. During the race, Grosjean ran as high as tenth when Gutiérrez collided with Fernando Alonso, causing Alonso's McLaren to roll over and prompting the race to be temporarily stopped while the scene of the accident was cleaned up. The team took advantage of the race stoppage to switch Grosjean's strategy, putting him on the most durable tyre compound available and running him to the end of the race on one set of tyres. Grosjean finished sixth, scoring eight World Championship points and making Haas the first start-up team to score points on their début since
Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
in . At the next round in
Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
, Grosjean qualified in ninth place and went on to beat his Melbourne result by finishing fifth. Gutiérrez qualified in thirteenth place, but once again retired from the race, this time with brake problems. Grosjean also scored points at the
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
,
Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...
and
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Grands Prix, while Gutiérrez could only manage a best finish of eleventh at a handful of races. He was not retained by the team for 2017, being replaced by
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 Mc ...
.


Complete Formula One results

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


Footnotes


References

{{F1 cars 2016 VF-16