Ferrari faces first rejection of the season as Haas decides against using the 'safest and easiest' choice

Ferrari has already faced its first rejection this season as Haas has opted out of taking the same front suspension that the Italian team is going with. The American squad stepped into F1 based on a unique deal with the Italian giant, where it sourced a chunk of parts from Maranello.

These parts tended to guide the car concept and the philosophy in general, and with Ferrari tending to do well in F1, it had a knock-on effect on Haas as well at the start of its Formula 1 journey. Going from the 2024 season into 2025, the Italian team has opted for an overhaul of its front suspension.

For Haas, a subsequent change in the design philosophy to align with what Ferrari is doing has also been the norm. This time, though, team principal Ayao Komatsu has taken a call that the team would not use the Italian team's suspension and instead continue developing on what it had in 2024.

As quoted by PlanetF1, Komatsu explained that Haas tended to follow the Ferrari route in the past because it was the "safest and easiest" choice. This time around, though, the team did its calculations and feels it is better if it continues developing on the path it was on in 2025:

“We always went with Ferrari’s latest supply — and not because that was an informed choice, because that was the safest and easiest choice. You have to recover, and then [see] how much potential that unlocks, comparing that against [what happens if you] don’t stop development, because we carried over the front suspension. How much potential is left in that?"

“They’ve done a proper study, then the conclusion was we should do a carryover. It’s good that we’ve done a proper study; then we had confidence to then go for that decision, whereas before we didn’t.”

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Haas would have been limited had it continued with the Ferrari front wing

Komatsu further explained that in 2024 Haas wanted to do certain things with the car, but it was somewhat limited by what it had in terms of monocoque and chassis design, something that came directly from Ferrari in the past. The team principal said that the team wanted to change this in 2025 after coming off a strong season (via Planet F1):

“We were developing the car pretty well last year but there are certain limitations that we had to accept. And then things we learned, say, mid-season about how to unlock certain performance — even what we wanted to do for Austin, we couldn’t. Or even Silverstone. But we couldn’t do it because of the monocoque design, the chassis design. So that’s something we decided how we want to change for this year’s car.”

This is a major step and a drastic change in philosophy for Haas itself. The team has often gone with a safe option but is becoming more independent with a leadership change.