Haas has become the first Formula 1 team to reveal its 2023 livery, with its new title sponsor prompting an influx of black to Haas’s traditional white and red colours.
Last October Haas announced a multi-year title sponsorship deal with American money transfer company MoneyGram.
The team initially operated without title sponsorship when it joined the F1 grid in 2016 until it partnered with the controversial Rich Energy company three years later as part of an ill-fated deal that would collapse mid-season.
The team then partnered with Uralkali, the company owned by the father of Nikita Mazepin, who Haas signed on a multi-year deal to race for the team.
But it was forced to split from Uralkali in the wake of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, leaving it without a title sponsor until its deal with MoneyGram.
The new title sponsorship is the biggest financially in the team’s history according to team principal Guenther Steiner, and it will allow Haas to operate at F1’s budget cap for the first time in 2023.
Small MoneyGram logos were featured on the front nose among a group of sponsors of Haas’s 2022 car but this year the company’s branding will feature prominently across the front wing and on the engine cover.
“I like the livery, it’s undoubtedly a more elevated and modernised look which is fitting as we move into a new era alongside MoneyGram as our title partner,” Steiner said.
“It’s an exciting time of year for Formula 1 and it’s great that we’re first out the gate to showcase our livery but our attention is firmly on getting the VF-23 on-track and preparing for the season ahead.”
Haas will shake down its actual 2023 F1 car at Silverstone on February 11.
Shock Brazilian Grand Prix polesitter Kevin Magnussen stays on for a sixth season with the team and is joined by the returning Nico Hulkenberg, who Haas elected to sign to replace Mick Schumacher.
“We really have something to build on following last year’s performances,” Steiner added.
“The whole organisation has been working hard to reach this point and obviously in Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg, we have two proven points-scoring talents locked in behind the wheel.
“I can’t wait to get started.”
Team founder and CEO Gene Haas also emphasised that its Magnussen-Hulkenberg pairing is “more than capable of delivering points” finishes and said the natural aim in 2023 is to score points more consistently.
Haas will be hoping to build on the progress made in 2022 where it rejoined F1’s midfield pack after sacrificing its 2021 development in favour of maximising the first year of F1’s new regulations.
Magnussen and Schumacher scored 37 points between them and secured eighth place in the constructors’ championship – the team’s highest finish since its current benchmark year in 2018, where it was fifth.
