Gene Haas has confirmed his team will be using a new engine package for the season opener in Melbourne.
Haas was speaking at the first test in Barcelona where he claimed the current engine configuration they are running is simply a ‘test package’.
The American outfit has a technical partnership with Ferarri which means they are supplied with the latest specification engines as soon as Ferrari has them available.
“From what I understand the engine package we are running right now is not the engine package we are going to be running in Melbourne,” Gene Haas said to Autosport
“These are more just test packages, so the engine will vary a little bit.”
When asked if Ferrari were using the same engine as Haas at the first test, Haas replied: “I don’t know.
“They’ve made a lot of changes [from last season], and according to them, it’s a whole new engine.
“So they probably have different packages of engines with different features on it that they want to make sure are reliable [during testing].
“I would imagine almost every engine has a little variation on it.”
“The one thing they want us to do is to put in a lot of laps, take it back, look at it and see if there are any problems with what they are designing.”
Apart from the engine alterations, Hass confirmed the car currently being used at the test is very much the same as what we will see in Melbourne apart from a front wing design change.
“Obviously, the chassis is homologated, so I don’t think there’s going to be that much different than what we are going to see in Melbourne.”
“Maybe the front wing will change a little bit given the reliability issues we’ve had, but I think what we are going to see here is the same as Melbourne.”
