Williams is joined by new sponsor Gulf, and from last in 2022, can only go forward from there. Photo / Supplied
Williams is joined by new sponsor Gulf, and from last in 2022, can only go forward from there. Photo / Supplied
Three teams revealing their new liveries means the start of the new F1 season is just around the corner.
The first team to reveal its new livery was the American-owned Haas team, founded by Gene Haas, which joined F1 in 2016. The big news for Haas at the start of its eighth year in F1, is that it has a new American sponsor, MoneyGram, which is basically a money transfer company, operating in 20 countries. Haas sees this sponsorship connection as meaning it is finally embracing its American heritage.
Haas F1 is based in North Carolina but has offices in the UK and Maranello. Money Gram will not change how the team operates, according to Team boss Guenther Steiner, but the new sponsor may appeal to the US fans a bit more, and with the possibility of Andretti joining F1, it is important for Haas to retain an American identity.
The new livery is predominantly black, white and red, with the MoneyGram logo across the engine cover, nose and front wing.
Unlike Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, who have to shred sponsors to stay within the FIA budget cap, the injection of funds from MoneyGram will help Haas actually reach that budget cap.
“We want to invest in the car,” Steiner told Motosprt.com.
Haas has a new sponsor but question marks remain over their experienced drivers. Photo / Supplied
“At the moment, whatever we have got, we invest in the car. There is nothing that you want to do outside at the moment. The system we have got, we just want to stabilise it and just make sure that we use everything to make the car go quick, nothing else.”
Haas finished eighth out of ten teams last year, with 37 points, a result it expects to improve on in 2023.
“We head into a new season buoyed by some strong performances last year and a return to points paying finishes,” Steiner said during the online launch.
“The aim for the 2023 season is naturally to do that more consistently and with Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg I certainly believe we’ve got an experienced driver pairing more than capable of delivering those points on a Sunday.”
Questions have however been raised about those drivers, especially bringing Hulkenberg back after a three-year absence from a full-time F1 drive. He replaces Mick Schumacher, who lost the drive after two seasons, despite showing signs at the British GP, where he finished 8th, and followed that up with a best-ever finish of 6th in Austria the following week. In the end he was 16th in the championship, with 12 points, while Magnussen was 13th with 25 points.
“Better or worse doesn’t really play much of a role here,” Steiner said when explaining why Schumacher wasn’t retained.
“What we wanted to achieve is to improve the team. I think we still have the potential to get better as a team. And what is the best way to bring a team forward? With drivers, you know what they can do and who can take the team forward.
“There is a reason why we are taking Nico. It’s not because we love him. There is a performance reason,” Steiner added.
There is little doubt that when Hulkenberg was called in at least four times in the last three seasons to replace Sergio Perez at Racing Point (now Aston Martin) when Perez had Covid, and also Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin last year, when he too had Covid, that “The Hulk” as he is nicknamed, performed well in the circumstances. But if you look at his F1 record, which began with Williams in 2010, and ended, at least in terms of full-time drives, with Renault in 2019, there is one glaring statistic. That is, despite scoring 501 points, he has never finished on the podium. He dubiously tops the list of drivers with the most points without a podium. McLaren driver Lando Norris, with 421 points, is second on that list, while Magnussen is 8th, with 183 points.
Hulkenberg finished fourth, three times, but a podium proved elusive. Former Force India and Red Bull Racing engineer, Blake Hinsey, has questioned Haas bringing in Hulkenberg.
“I like Nico, because he was on the other car when I was at Force India,” Hinsey told GPFans. “He’s a good driver. Is he going to be better in two years than Mick would be in two years? I have no idea. And that’s super hard to tell! It seems like Mick didn’t really push. He was just really finding his feet and had a couple of moments in the middle of the season where you’re like, ‘Alright, alright’, but now it’s super hard to say. It’s a really weird appointment and I think it doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Former F1 driver has also warned Steiner of the task ahead in taming his two drivers, who have acrimonious history.
“The fact is both only have a one-year contract, so both are fighting for the cockpit,” Glock noted. “I think Guenther Steiner will have a task ahead of him to tame the two.”
Two days after the Haas launch, came the unveiling of the Red Bull car that world champion Max Verstappen hopes will give him a third consecutive title. Prior to the launch, Team boss Christian Horner lamented about the penalty imposed on the team by the FIA for overspending by $1.7m on the budget cap. The team was fined $7m but worse than that is the 10 per cent loss of wind tunnel testing time, according to Horner.
“It’s limiting significantly, the amount of runs that we can do in our wind tunnel over each quarter,” Horner says. “And I think that the team is having to adapt to that, we’re probably 25 percent almost of the way through that penalty, and of course, it has an effect.
“So, it’s another challenge. And it’s a handicap for sure, coming into this year, but we’ve got very capable people that are looking to obviously extract the best that we possibly can and apply ourselves in the most efficient and effective way.”
Verstappen though has suggested it isn’t a problem the team has discussed.
“I mean for sure, I don’t think it’s hanging over us because we never really talk about it,” he said. “We are just focused on what we’re doing right now, try to of course, put everything on the car, what we have been developing and try to hit the ground running very well and definitely have a better start to the year than we had last year and then from there, we’ll see.
“I mean, it’s difficult to predict what will happen. Are we good enough? Are we going to be quick enough? I don’t know,” he added.
Red Bull chose the Manhatten Classic car Club in New York as the venue for taking the covers off the RB19, with Verstappen and Perez on hand, together with reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo. The car looks similar to last year’s car, but the fuller version may not be revealed until testing starts in Bahrain. But what made the launch more newsworthy was confirmation that Red Bull will be linking up with Ford in 2026, when the car manufacturer will make a return to F1. The last time an F1 car had a Ford engine was with Benetton in 1994, the year Michael Schumacher won his first world championship. Benetton switched to a Renault engine in 1995.
Ford powered cars have won 176 races, taken 535 podiums, 13 Driver’s Championships and 10 Constructors’ titles. Only Ferrari and Mercedes powertrains have won more races than Ford.
Given Honda will no longer provide an engine after 2025, Red Bull has been looking for a new engine supplier. Ford CEO Jim Farley joined Horner onstage at the launch to confirm what the press had been reporting for several weeks, and the latter was happy to look ahead to the new partnership.
“I think it was a matter of getting the best fit and I think this partnership really didn’t have any compromises,” Horner said. “It’s a great brand, it’s going to help us in the US, it’s going to help us technically.”
Williams has now taken the covers of the FW45 and confirmed that American company Gulf has joined the team as a sponsor. Williams and Gulf had worked together in the 1960′s and early ‘70s in F1 and Can-Am racing. More recently Gulf was associated with McLaren. but it will be the Gulf’s colours and logo featuring on the FW45 in 2023.
“This signifies the strength of our brand and commercial offerings as we continue our transformation,” Williams Racing Chairman Matthew Savage said.
So, two teams revealing new sponsors, and champions Red Bull already looking ahead to 2026. Alfa Romeo are next to take the covers off their new car, followed by Alpha Tauri.
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Sources: Haas Racing; Red Bull Racing and Williams Racing.
