Haas have unveiled their VF-26 car which will compete in the 2026 Formula One season.
Last season saw Haas finish eighth in the constructors’ standings with 79 points with Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon behind the wheel, whilst Bearman outscored Ocon in the drivers’ standings by three points as they finished 13th and 15th respectively.
This season though marks a fresh revamp of the technical regulations and Haas have tweaked their livery to a predominant white with splashes of black and red across the sidepods and engine cover.
“Like all teams, we’ve faced the challenge of competing in 2025 while looking to design and now build these new-regulation entries for the 2026 season”, explained team founder and owner, Gene Haas who believes that pre-season will be vital to understanding the car’s capabilities.
“The pre-season will be crucial to understand what these cars are capable of and how the drivers, engineers and teams in general adapt to them.”
Haas also noted that the team have continuity across the board as he continued; “We at least have continuity in terms of the drivers, with Ollie and Esteban, as well as in our design and engineering teams.
“Last season’s competition in the midfield was of an exceptionally high standard, it was tough, and we need to go out again and continue to develop – both on and off-track. Personally, I’m going to be very interested to see how the competition shakes out across the grid and what these new regulations bring in terms of performance.”
Team Principal, Ayao Komatsu added that the new car’s unveiling felt “surreal” but is confident that they will be ready for shakedown week in Barcelona, Spain, next week, which is a private five-day test to give teams a chance to shake down their new cars and understand the new machinery.
“We’re fully focused on being ready for Shakedown Week in Barcelona. It’s been a monumental effort from everyone on the team to work with such a tight turnaround time from the end of last season to putting cars on track in January.
Komatsu however is eager to see how the cars perform and what challenges lie ahead in their pre-season testing programme.
“It goes without saying that after so much talk, we can’t wait to see how these cars will perform and what we’ll face as we then progress through our test programs ahead of Australia.
“Track time is going to be crucial through Spain and Bahrain and while we know there’s going to be challenges along the way, we do this because we’re passionate about Formula 1.”
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