{"id":33123,"date":"2025-04-26T05:31:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T09:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=33123"},"modified":"2025-04-26T05:31:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T09:31:06","slug":"haas-work-to-eliminate-key-weakness-for-upcoming-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/26\/haas-work-to-eliminate-key-weakness-for-upcoming-races\/","title":{"rendered":"Haas work to eliminate key weakness for upcoming races"},"content":{"rendered":"

Haas<\/a> fell from fifth to sixth in the constructors standings after the Saudi Arabia GP, as rivals Williams delivered a strong weekend to claim double-points in Jeddah.<\/p>\n

After a difficult opening round in Australia, Haas can be credited with a competitive car – having scored points in successive events at China, Japan and Bahrain.<\/p>\n

However, the team’s performance last weekend was a reminder that certain limitations remain.<\/p>\n

Team principal Ayao Komatsu<\/a> aims to make the VF-25 a more complete package over the coming months.<\/p>\n

Room for improvement at Haas<\/h2>\n

In the space of just twelve months, Haas transformed themselves from a team incapable of making mid-season improvements to one of the most effective outfits at bringing upgrades.<\/p>\n

The team responded almost immediately to their poor Australian GP with a floor update<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This marked one of the first major upgrade packages introduced across the field in 2025.<\/p>\n

Not only were Haas fast to make adjustments, but their package proved effective – with Ocon finishing 5th and Bearman 8th at the Chinese GP.<\/p>\n

More points followed in the subsequent events, with the VF-25’s poor tyre degradation and lack of efficiency seeing notable progress.<\/p>\n

With that said, especially with other competitive outfits like Williams and VCARB, relative weaknesses remain.<\/p>\n

High-speed corners are still an area where the VF-25 loses out to rivals, which was evidenced in clear terms at Jeddah.<\/p>\n

\"\"
JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA Esteban Ocon the Haas F1 VF-25 Ferrari in in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Peter Fox\/LAT Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aware of this problems, Ayao Komatsu explains the path forward for Haas:<\/p>\n

“Ultimately we just didn\u2019t have the pace to score points. I think our result is a fair one, I think everyone has done their best, so we got the most out of what we have.<\/em><\/p>\n

“But on this circuit with high-speed corners, sadly our performance wasn\u2019t good enough.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We\u2019re working on improving the car and understanding how to get performance out of the soft tire, as we need to look at that for Miami. <\/em><\/p>\n

“All in all, through this gruelling triple-header, I\u2019m happy with how the team is performing. We achieved a great result in Suzuka and Bahrain, so I think we have to look at the bigger picture. <\/em><\/p>\n

“Let\u2019s reset and go again in Miami.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA – APRIL 20: Esteban Ocon prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Alex Pantling\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rivals closing the gap<\/h4>\n

As it stands, Haas should easily match – and potentially improve – their finishing position from last year’s Championship.<\/p>\n

Their current battle is for fifth place against Williams. This could be the position Haas compete for throughout 2025, unless Aston Martin<\/a> or another midfield team unlock a significant step forward.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Aston Martin and VCARB are among the teams set to bring updates at the coming events.<\/p>\n

Even without updates, VCARB<\/a> have been far more competitive than their points tally suggests. Approximately 20 points were thrown away due to poor strategy in Albert Park and Shanghai.<\/p>\n

Still, this does not mean new components to the VCARB 02 cannot make the Faenza team a bigger threat.<\/p>\n

Aston Martin’s next updates will also have the benefit of being\u00a0 developed with their new wind tunnel.<\/p>\n

Because of this, Haas can count upon potentially intensifying competition over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

This will only heighten the importance for Ayao Komatsu’s personnel to continue developing the VF-25.<\/p>\n

Thanks to their strong start, however, the US outfit can expect to fight for points throughout 2025 – even if they decide to allocate more resources to the 2026 regulations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Haas fell from fifth to sixth in the constructors standings after the Saudi Arabia GP, as rivals Williams delivered a strong weekend to claim double-points in Jeddah. After a difficult opening round in Australia, Haas can be credited with a competitive car – having scored points in successive events at China, Japan and Bahrain. However, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":33124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2224,2452,346],"class_list":["post-33123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-ayao-komatsu","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-haas"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33127,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33123\/revisions\/33127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}