New Haas update explained amid fresh VF-25 development push

Matthew Somerfield 19 Oct 2025 6:08 PM

Haas arrived at the Circuit of the Americas with a fairly substantial update package for the VF-25, as it looks to close out the season on a high.

The update package, which largely centres around the car’s floor, builds upon the alterations made at the British Grand Prix, which were the second stage of the course correction needed following the team’s early-season woes.

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Haas arrived at the first race of the season in Australia and immediately found itself on the backfoot, owing to high-speed instability. In response, the team rushed through a much-needed update package at the Japanese Grand Prix.

It has since revisited the design on numerous occasions, with similarly sized and development-focused updates made to various sections of the floor at the Emilia Romagna and British Grands Prix.

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When it comes to understanding how much has changed with this type of update package, there’s always going to be a heavy dose of guess work as a great deal of what has been changed on the VF-25 sits on part of the floor we aren’t able to see.

However, regardless of the refinements made out of view to the underfloor, which will revolve around the geometry applied to the central boat and the venturi-style tunnels, there’s some obvious signs of progress having been made externally.

For example, the floor edge wing has been modified in several ways, including the upwardly swept forward section, which has been elongated, whilst an additional vane has also been installed in order to help control the trajectory of the airflow that’s ejected laterally.

Meanwhile, at the rear of the assembly there’s changes made to both the shape of the L-shaped tail section that extends into the floor cavity and the mounting point, which now sits above the opening and also connects to the leading edge of the tyre spat section thereafter.

These changes will not only have a direct impact on the local aerodynamic structures but the loads associated with the various surfaces in that region will also be altered.

The shape of the rear spat section has also been modified in order to work in unison with the aforementioned and the other alterations made around and ahead of it.

This includes some alterations to the floor fences at the front of the floor and, as seen above, a different profile for the lower portion of the rear brake duct fence (left).

Rather than continuing to develop the ladder-style solution (centre), this new design is a return to geometry much more like that used earlier in the season, seen on the right from Monaco, albeit with a small tail employed at the base of the half-crescent shaped profile.

The team opted to gather data and feedback from its drivers during FP1 on the update package, with the new parts fitted to Esteban Ocon’s VF-25, whilst Ollie Bearman continued to assess the car’s performance in the previous trim.

But, sure enough, both cars were outfitted with the new components for Sprint Qualifying, with both drivers going on to praise the team’s commitment to finding performance at this late stage in the regulation cycle.

“I think the upgrade is pushing us in the right direction” suggested Bearman, before going on to highlight that “I would say it makes the car a little bit more sensitive and a bit more on the limit. Because, you know, I made a mistake in Q2 in my second run, just, you know, a bit of wind, and it’s enough to, you know, flick the rear around.

“So I think that’s kind of the compromise we’re playing with at this stage of the regs, bringing performance to the car. You make the car more sensitive to everything, but it’s definitely faster”.

Haas