Haas has revised its livery for Monaco and the rest of the season, ostensibly to help with visibility of numbers and names after the recent FIA clampdown.
In a year that has seen an orange McLaren and a pink Force India the Haas was regarded by observers as one of the less spectacular looking cars, but curiously the team has decided to remove most of the red and add even more gray.
The team explained: “Sleek tones of gray have replaced the red portions of the car, sans for the angular red accent mark at the rear which has been a trademark of Haas F1 Team since its debut last season. It’s a styling upgrade for a locale where upgraded style is a way of life.”
Team boss Guenther Steiner confirmed that it was not just for Monaco.
“It is for the whole year now,” he said. “With the change in the size of the numbers and its positioning, we looked into making the entire car a little more visible.”
Regarding the challenge of the street event he said: “For me, Monaco is a race like all the others. We’re there to perform and score points. However, it’s always special due to the glitz and the glamour. The biggest difference with Monaco is the distance between everything. You have to walk a lot, so I would say it’s one of the most logistically challenging circuits.
“And during the race it’s quite intense, because if you make even a small mistake you can be in the wall. Overtaking is difficult too, so there is more pressure on Saturday during qualifying than there’s actually on Sunday, because by Sunday the positions are set and unless something special happens, you end up where you start. Saturday will be intense.”
