The Haas F1 Team is preparing to shift gears ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, where the stakes will be exceptionally high. The introduction of the 2026 regulations, combined with the return of the Sprint format, will significantly increase the level of complexity for all teams on the grid.
Teams will have just a single free practice session to test the new Ferrari power unit software and optimize key systems like energy deployment, boost management, and overtaking strategies. This limited track time will place even greater pressure on teams like Haas, which must quickly adapt to maximize performance.
Hoagy Nidd, Haas’ Head of Engineering, emphasized that the team’s focus will be entirely on understanding the new power delivery strategies. The primary objective is to extract maximum race performance and fight consistently for points finishes.
Hoagy Nidd explains the reality of being a customer team
“Obviously, as a customer team, you are always the one receiving this kind of support, and earlier in my career I also worked in works teams. I spent 11 years at Mercedes, I worked on the power unit at Ferrari, and naturally, the nature of being a customer team is that you have to accept what you are given.”
“We have the opportunity to provide feedback, but we will never be the top priority; that is simply the reality of being a customer team. However, we have the chance to collaborate very effectively with our power unit supplier; it is one of the best working relationships I have seen in Formula 1,” he admitted.
“At the end of the day, you have to race with what you have available, while also dealing with the added complexity of energy management in the early phase of the season. Changes to energy management are mainly handled by our power unit partners, who will develop a strategy based on those updates and then implement it through software.”
“Some of the delivery deadlines required for the software ahead of Miami have been slightly delayed, which will help all manufacturers to write and implement the code and then properly test it,” he added.
“Once that phase is complete, we will need to do additional work to understand how it will impact the performance of our car. It is not a massive task, but it will slightly shift our priorities when we arrive in Miami.”
“You will probably see teams doing things a bit differently in FP1 compared to a normal weekend. At the same time in Miami, we will need to get on track and actually test the software, while also working through various aspects of the strategy—whether it is testing boost, evaluating overtaking, or ensuring that race starts are correct. So there will definitely be a shift in priorities across the entire paddock,” he concluded.
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