The new Haas Formula 1 car for 2026 has just hit the digital airways, with five renders of the car released.
Haas had a solid year in 2025, but threw away too many points. This was mainly through driver errors, but the team also has to get itself into a more consistent performance window. It's always worrying when you go into a weekend not quite sure if you could be pushing for a top-six finish or facing elimination in Q1.
This change in regulations and the increasing technical involvement with Toyota - on top of its longstanding deals with Ferrari and Dallara - is Haas's big chance to show its true worth.
Although the team's work is split across several locations - which doesn't make it easy to keep the ship pointing in the right direction - team principal Ayao Komatsu is doing a first-class job. It's just the final bit that Haas needs to focus on, which is being able to deliver consistent results.
As for the car itself, because these are renders there could well be a few eureka moments and special parts that are covered up. But as I always say, we can only comment on what we see.
The radiator inlet (green highlight above) compared to others is huge. Airflow going through there is useless as far as producing downforce is concerned, so there is a lot of waste here. Also, the sidepod leading edge undercut (yellow highlight above) is very abrupt. The more abrupt this is, the greater the restriction it will have on the airflow coming through the front suspension and in turn coming off the trailing edge of the front wing.
Like Cadillac, Haas also has a huge wing section on the outside of the front wing endplate (blue highlight above). It might just be the way to go, but I'm pretty sure that after a few first-lap skirmishes there will be many cars finishing races without them. But it's a good place perhaps to have some ballast; then when you do lose it the car will at least be lighter!
First of all, on face value it looks like Haas is using pushrod suspension front (red highlight above) and rear. However, I have my doubts on this as far as the front is concerned as the chassis doesn't seem to have an opening (green ellipse below) where the pushrod goes through. The pushrod is just cut off when it hits the chassis profile. Also, most of the suspension seems to have just been plonked in place.
I'm not a major fan of this central fin (orange highlight below) on the engine cover. A small fin can help to tidy up the flow coming off the engine cover and stabilise it as it heads for the rear wing, but a big one can create problems when there is any crosswind. I suppose, as we can see, it is a good spot for a team's sponsors.
One other thing that creates doubts in my mind is the wheelbase comparison below between Haas and Red Bull. The maximum wheelbase for this year has been reduced from 3600mm to 3400mm, so assuming everyone is looking at the best layout I would have expected the cars to all be just under or on that maximum.
As this comparison shows, when we reference both cars around the cockpit opening location - which is defined in the regulations using the headrest and halo - it shows that the Haas is much shorter. So one of the two teams is trying to pull the wool over our eyes. The Haas tyres are also way out of scale and look bigger front to rear, so from that I would assume it is the Red Bull that's more realistic.
Haas's gearbox is supplied by Ferrari, so unless that is one of the cover-ups this area of the car should give us a clue to the direction Ferrari is taking. Pushrod both ends perhaps?
From all of that, I think it is best to take what we are looking at with a pinch of salt. If it is real then Haas has pre-released what Ferrari would like to have kept hidden until the time was right. Also, if the short wheelbase is correct, Haas will have gone down a path that I doubt many others will have followed.
All will be revealed in a week's time, perhaps.
