Guenther Steiner says the introduction of the halo has had some effect on the development of the 2018 car, as the additional weight means they have to look elsewhere lose some weight.
The team principal of the Haas F1 Team says they are also working on developing the halo so it works aerodynamically, which is making the engineers scratch their heads, but he is confident a solution will be found that will benefit them next season.
“We gained a little bit of knowledge last year when it was supposed to come in for 2017, but it was never off the list so everybody was thinking about it and working on it,” said Steiner.
“We’ll work on how we get the weight down on other parts of the car because we are at the minimum weight, otherwise our car just gets too heavy. We also need to find the best solution aerodynamically to integrate the halo into the overall body.
“So, it’s head scratching, but nothing unusual for good engineers but, for sure, there is some work that needs to be done.”
Steiner says the team are still working on developing their 2017 challenger and they expect an upgrade package to arrive at either the Japanese or the United States Grand Prix.
“We are still working through the data we gained from our last wind tunnel test to see if we bring another package for Japan or when we go to the United States,” said Steiner.
“It looks more like we may bring some more updates for the U.S. Grand Prix.”