Why Haas F1 won’t use Toyota’s wind tunnel despite technical partnership

Haas will proceed to work in Ferrari’s System 1 wind tunnel regardless of signing a high-profile technical partnership with Toyota final yr.

Though Toyota’s F1 workforce got here and went expensively throughout the 2000s with out securing a single victory, its wind tunnel in Cologne was as soon as thought of so innovative that different F1 outfits used it as opposed to their very own. 

Nonetheless, Haas has determined to stay to the identical Ferrari tunnel that it has used since its entry into F1 in 2016.

The choice is a strategic one which includes Haas’s seek for a brand new HQ by which it is going to be in a position to rationalise efficiency work at the moment break up between the US, the UK and Italy. This may even embody the combination of a brand new driver-in-loop simulator Haas will build as part of Toyota’s investment.

To determine an aerodynamics group situated in Cologne, or have one commuting there, would add prices and make logistics extra difficult. The Toyota tunnel additionally has a particular shortcoming which instantly impacts analysis into floor impact.

“By no means is a powerful phrase,” workforce boss Ayao Komatsu instructed Autosport and a choose group of media throughout a pre-season briefing, “however for the foreseeable future, we’ve got no plans to maneuver out of the Maranello wind tunnel.”

Wind tunnel

Picture by: McLaren

Following Toyota’s withdrawal from F1 on the finish of 2009, a number of groups – together with McLaren, Williams, Drive India (now Aston Martin) and even Ferrari – shifted analysis into the Japanese marque’s tunnel, though within the Scuderia’s case it was a short lived measure whereas it refitted its personal tunnel, which is housed inside a spectacular Renzo Piano-designed construction close to the rear entrance to the Maranello manufacturing unit. Presently solely the Cadillac workforce is working in Cologne.

On the time, Toyota’s tunnel loved a big benefit over others as a result of it supplied Particle Picture Velocimetry (PIV), a way by which tiny particles illuminated by a laser sheet are used as an alternative of smoke to offer a visible illustration of the movement area round a automotive. PIV is taken into account extra correct as a result of the tracer particles exert much less of an affect over airflow than smoke particles.

Now, although, most groups have upgraded their services to incorporate PIV and a spotlight has shifted to the type of the rolling highway. Within the new ground-effect period, the place the automobiles run nearer to the bottom, the interplay between the automotive ground and observe floor has develop into a key efficiency differentiator.

Final summer time Ferrari shut down its F1 wind tunnel to put in a brand new ‘rubberised’ rolling highway which, whereas much less sturdy than the traditional metal belt, extra precisely displays the feel of a observe floor. Haas is now having fun with the advantages of Ferrari’s work, whereas Toyota must undertake the identical analysis and funding programme to supply the identical aggressive customary.

It has not escaped the eye of anybody in F1 that the groups main the best way within the 2024 constructors’ championship and seemingly encountering the fewest important aerodynamic issues via the season – McLaren and Ferrari – have each lately upgraded wind tunnel services.

“For me, it’s a win-win scenario,” stated Komatsu. “As a result of us and Ferrari are after all preventing in the identical championship, so no matter particular problem you will have in your wind tunnel {hardware}, which is said to the specifics of the [ground effect] laws on this technology, Ferrari is doing the analysis, they’re addressing it, so we take the profit with out us doing the analysis.

“I don’t see any level in us transferring out of the Maranello simulator to go to the Toyota wind tunnel which at the moment doesn’t have [a ‘rubberised’ floor]. OK, Andretti is utilizing it, however they’re not competing in F1 but.

Kevin Magnussen, Haas F1 Staff, with Ayao Komatsu, Staff Principal, Haas F1 Staff

Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Pictures

“So for the foreseeable future, I don’t see any level in transferring out of the Maranello wind tunnel.”

In addition to potential efficiency benefits – despite the fact that Haas’s 2025 automotive will characteristic fewer components purchased in from Ferrari’s 2025 package deal, notably the entrance suspension – sustaining a presence in Maranello presents a component of logistical continuity as Haas seems to do extra efficiency analysis ‘beneath one roof’. It’s understood that quite a few choices for a brand new UK HQ had been introduced to workforce proprietor Gene Haas on the finish of January.

This facility will home the brand new driver-in-loop simulator coming as a part of Toyota’s funding. Presently if Haas needs to make use of Ferrari’s simulator, personnel should journey from the UK.

“In the event you have a look at the simulator, final yr we did undoubtedly no more than 15 days,” stated Komatsu. “What different groups solely do 15 days of simulator working?

“Throughout the race weekend, we don’t do any simulator working in any respect. Once more, I feel all people else does.

“So all of these capabilities, we haven’t received. And if we’ve got received the simulator in Maranello, that’s the solely simulator that we’ve got entry to. We merely can not do it.

“We’ve got to ship individuals from right here as a result of the Maranello workplace is basically designed for in a roundabout way operational efficiency individuals. So that’s the reason having the simulator right here by way of effectivity can be night time and day.”