Haas has revealed its 2018 Formula 1 car, the VF-18. The United States-based team revealed its car a day before Williams, and before any other F1 team.

The VF-18, which will be driven by Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean for the 2018 season, carries the new halo head protection device and a reduced sharkfin.

“The biggest part of the car’s evolution was the addition of the halo,” said Haas team principal Guenther Steiner. “It took quite a bit of study by the aerodynamicists, but the designers had to work hard to modify the chassis so the halo could survive the mandated loads. The total minimum weight of the car increased because of the halo, and there’s a higher centre of gravity simply because of the halo’s position. But, everyone is in the same boat.”

The team finished eighth in 2017 with 47 points. Steiner said that he wants the “clean and precise” looking machine to “close the gap to the top teams.

“Our 2017 car was actually pretty good,” he said. “But we didn’t always get the best out of it, and that’s what we aimed to change in 2018. We got the car as light as possible to carry more ballast. We were able to do a better job of putting the weight where we wanted it.”

“The regulations stayed pretty stable between 2017 and 2018, so the VF-18 is an evolution of our car from last year. It’s less about reinvention and more about refinement. You see elements we had from last year on the car this year.”

View and download the full 2018 F1 calendar, including testing and car launch dates