Haas has revealed its plans for the track debut of its 2025 challenger, as the team gears up for a season with an all-new driver lineup.
Esteban Ocon joins the team from Alpine while Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman will be making his full-time F1 debut with the team, having already had two outings with the team in Azerbaijan and Brazil last year.
Team principal Ayao Komatsu ‘could not believe’ Bearman is only 18 years old, after the Briton impressed with how he galvanised the team and got up to speed in the simulator without any delays.
Bearman will be one of five rookies making their full-time debut this season and recently ran at Jerez in an older spec car, as part of Haas first Testing of Previous Cars run.
The team has now confirmed its plans for when it will first run its 2025 challenger, however, there is a reason why it has chosen a specific run plan according to Komatsu.
Haas to run Esteban Ocon first to avoid any potential last-minute ‘challenges’
Haas has confirmed that the VF-25 will run for the first time at Silverstone on 16th February for a filming day in the hands of Ocon.
Ocon will drive first because of his height, standing at 6.1ft compared to Bearman who is 6ft tall. Komatsu explained the decision when speaking to The Race: “Because Esteban, in terms of driver installation, is more challenging so we just want to make 100% sure it is fine so if we’ve got an issue we’ve got more time to react”.
Haas says it is a precaution in case any last-minute changes need to be made, however, it is not expected to be a problem given the Ocon could fit without any problems when he ran in both their 2023 and 2024 cars.
Bearman will then get the opportunity to drive the 2025 challenger on the team’s second filming day, which is set to take place two days before pre-season testing which runs between 26th and 28th February.
Haas makes history with first female F1 engineer
As part of the driver shakeup, there has also been a raft of staff changes, with Ocon set to have the first female F1 race engineer in Laura Mueller.
After joining the team in 2022, Mueller first worked as a performance engineer before being picked to engineer Ocon this season.
READ MORE: All to know about Haas F1 Team from team principal to Ferrari and Toyota ties
Bearman will have Irishman Ronan O’Hara, also formerly a performance engineer, in his ear this year.
Francesco Neci also joins the team as chief race engineer, Mark Lowe becomes sporting director, and ex-Racing Bull’s engineer Carine Cridelich will become head of strategy.
