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| Written by Keith Collantine
Haas has revealed the first images of its new car for the 2026 Formula 1 season.
The VF-26 is the 11th F1 chassis designed by the team. Haas revealed the first renderings of the car today but said its design is likely to change significantly before the season begins in March.
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Ayao Komatsu, who is heading into his third season in charge of the team, said Haas has faced its toughest off-season to date as it prepares for F1’s new regulations.
“The new regulations mean it’s financially challenging and regarding resources, everyone knows we’re still the smallest team,” he said. “It’s a huge challenge, and as team principal, the responsibility is bigger, ensuring that this team is equipped to tackle this massive regulation change.
“I don’t think any team, even the biggest, is going to say they’re fully equipped to tackle this, however for us, the challenge is bigger.”
However Komatsu said he is encouraged by the progress the team has made in recent years. Although they fell from seventh to eighth in the championship last year, they increased their points haul from 58 to 79.
“Away from [the] track, look at what we’ve achieved over the last couple of years – we’ve grown as a team,” he said. “Not just in [staff] numbers, but in terms of mentality, mindset, and how we go racing. I feel like we’re progressing our journey very, very well. It’s different to have something already established and, let’s say, adjusting it to new regulations.
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“We’re growing as a team in a pretty aggressive way, and at the same time, we’re tackling these brand new regulations. It’s a huge challenge, but we’ve already shown from what happened in Melbourne last year how we recovered from that, and we’ve haven’t stopped improving since.”
The VF-26 is due to run for the first time in pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya next week. Komatsu expects all teams to develop their cars rapidly between the start of the season and the first race.
“The car everyone will see in Barcelona won’t be the car that races in Australia, and I think that will be across the board, because it’s simply too early,” he said. “It’s different, perhaps, having one test two weeks before the first race, but with over a month before the first race, teams won’t stop wind tunnel development. Hence, the cars testing in Barcelona, and even the first week of testing in Bahrain, will be less mature compared to what’s built in Australia for the first race.”
The car’s livery features much more prominent branding for Japanese manufacturer Toyota through its Gazoo Racing brand. Toyota returned to F1 in a technical collaboration with Haas in 2024 and the team will be officially known as TGR Haas F1 this year.
Haas will continue to use Ferrari power units, as it has done since it arrived in F1 10 years ago. Komatsu said the priority during pre-season testing will be to understand the impact of the new power unit regulations and how the team can optimise the car’s energy levels.
“Firstly, before we go racing, and even testing, we need to get on top of energy management, that’s the huge one,” he said. “I don’t know if we all understand the full extent of the challenge because we don’t know what we don’t know.
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“Then with aero development, we’re reasonably happy with what we’ve done so far, but as with all new regulations, the question will be, is the target we’ve set good enough? When we get testing, I’m sure we’re going to see different concepts, and if we’ve missed something, we need to get on it very quickly.
“For the first few races, rather than setting a sporting target, it’s more a target for us. First and foremost, get on top of PU management, then aerodynamic development. If we have to change direction or look at different concepts, again, we’ve got to do that promptly.
“To be able to implement certain things quickly, you’ve got to work as a team and have clarity on communication. These are things we’ve been doing the last couple of years, and that’s going to be tested even more, but I feel like we’re prepared.”
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Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
19th January 2026, 13:15
Seen that shark fin on the RBR also, was hoping it was just a divert but I now it’s on the Haas … really hope we don’t see a return of those barge board sized fins we saw around 2017
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
19th January 2026, 16:24
Not very promising, is it? Looks like a feeder series car with that fin and narrower suspension.
But let’s see what Newey at Aston, and (shudder) HP at Ferrari come up with.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
19th January 2026, 13:36
I like the livery. Sorta works on a F1 car, whereas in the Le Mans racer it always felt dull.
Adrian Hancox (@ahxshades)
19th January 2026, 13:39
Getting his poor underdog team excuses in early I guess.
SteveR (@stever)
19th January 2026, 23:57
Yeah. All the teams operate, as we all know, under a budget cap that’s the same for all teams. Sure, Haas received less end of season prize money but they also are receiving an extra pay-out from Cadillac joining the game. The tail end teams also receive more wind tunnel and computer time than teams ahead of them. It’s time for Haas to step up and stop making excuses or sell the team and make a huge profit.
Genghis Blond
20th January 2026, 4:18
The financial excuse is particularly surprising when you factor in the booming illegal exports business Gene has been doing in Russia, all the new sponsors including a Toyota title sponsorship, the prize money and the budget cap. So, only Gene extracting every last bit of income while investing nothing back in the team could account for a major budget gap.
MazdaChris (@mazdachris)
19th January 2026, 13:50
It doesn’t bode well for the strategy department that they appear to have accidentally put a pair of rear wheels on the front of the car.
Zxc
19th January 2026, 16:12
The fact that somebody who made it wasn’t immediately bothered by how odd this cars looked with those huge tyres tells me they have no idea about what an F1 car looks like. And yet, that’s the job they have at Haas…. SMH.
grat
19th January 2026, 18:52
They’re pretty heavily constrained by the “box” rules for what they can and can’t do with the design.
You got a problem with how the cars look, take it up with Pat Symonds and Stefano Domenicalli.
mig29smt
19th January 2026, 14:29
how tf you can launch a render with rear wheels at front and rear? this team is souless to say the least.
Mark (@blueruck)
20th January 2026, 1:25
He said the car would look completely differently LOL – guess they plan to fix the tires 🙂
cdavman (@cdavman)
19th January 2026, 14:57
Presumably simply another livery reveal with a horribly inaccurate render…
And yet I’m sure we’ll see loads of analysis appear about the car across various websites and from various experts. Not much point in analysing anything until we get to the public preseason test, or better yet the first race.
Ideals (@ideals)
19th January 2026, 15:34
I think this is genuinely the first time in the decade of Haas liveries we’ve been exposed to that I’ve actually seen one that I liked. That’s a tight looking car.
Philip Roden
19th January 2026, 16:05
Best looking Haas F1 car IMO
MichaelN
19th January 2026, 16:14
It’s a good look.
How much of the car is now made by Haas itself? Is it still mostly Dallara and then further updates made by Haas itself?
Mark Thomson (@melthom)
19th January 2026, 16:46
Not bad at all. Their best so far.
praxis (@praxis)
19th January 2026, 16:53
Other than Ferrari(PU and transmission) and Dallara(chassis), how much Toyota is involved in development/production of this car? I remember Toyota’s involvement with simulator and some alternative manufacturing for parts.
anon
19th January 2026, 20:44
@praxis currently, Toyota is still only a minor supplier of parts for Haas, with their current focus on some of the smaller elements made from carbon fibre and similar composite materials. Haas does have a longer term goal of making greater use of Toyota’s manufacturing facilities, which may include larger and more complex components, but that’s still probably a few years away.
As for development work, they have mentioned assisting with aerodynamic development work – although they’ve not provided details, that would seem to imply using their facilities in Cologne for wind tunnel testing, which may also involve undertaking some design work on some aerodynamic elements.
You’re right that the main area that Toyota is currently involved in is Haas’s simulator. It’s currently still a work in progress, as they are still building and testing components (using one of Toyota’s other simulators for calibration work), with the target being to bring it online around May to June this year (2026 is going to be mostly about learning how to get the most out of the simulator, with 2027 seeing it being used for development work). Connected to that, it seems Toyota are also improving Haas’s telemetry systems, given that data will feed into their simulator work in the future.
praxis (@praxis)
19th January 2026, 21:21
Thanks for the details.
I wasn’t getting a clear enough idea from the usual web searches.
Somewhat interested to see where this partnership leads, or if Toyota has something bigger future plans related to F1.
Globulos
19th January 2026, 19:59
Rule changes are so boring. Let the teams converge more and stop letting teams cheat their way to 4 WDC.
Maciek (@maciek)
19th January 2026, 22:58
It’s… a decent Haas livery for once. Komatsu has done a pretty great job all told. Let’s see where they end up this season.
Tristan
19th January 2026, 23:21
Truly beautiful livery, the motion, the flow… Speaks more TGR and Komatsu than the old HAAS… I gotta eat my words when I thought getting rid of Steiner was a mistake. The car has purpose, menace, and taste.
Hope it goes well for them.
Riker (@corsair)
20th January 2026, 0:37
Need to put some spinners on those wheels! 🙂
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