As MoneyGram Haas F1 Team celebrates the start of its tenth season in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, today the American squad unveiled the design and livery of its VF-25 – the car to be raced by both Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon in this year’s 24-race championship. The new-look livery was revealed in spectacular fashion at the F1 75 Live event hosted at The O2 Arena in London, as MoneyGram Haas F1 Team joined the rest of the grid in showcasing its colors for the season ahead.
The VF-25 made its physical track debut on Sunday February 16, at a private shakedown test at Silverstone Circuit, England with Ocon behind the wheel. Fellow team newcomer Bearman will get his first taste of the car at the Bahrain International Circuit on Monday 24 February at the team’s second permitted shakedown test prior to pre-season testing commencing in Bahrain, February 26-28.
Presenting the VF-25 design and livery digitally across its social channels to coincide with the F1 75 Live event, the renders released highlight the revised livery design with a predominantly fresh white design complete with black and red accents.
MoneyGram, a financial technology company creating trusted global payments and financial solutions for an increasingly connected world, proudly enters its third season as title partner with the team – its logos prominent once again on the engine cover and front and rear wing, proudly enters its third season as title partner with the team – its logos prominent once again on the engine cover and front and rear wing. Haas Automation – the global CNC machine tool company founded by team owner Gene Haas, similarly maintains its placement on the sidepods and rear wing. Team partners Toyota GAZOO Racing, Play’n GO, Mphasis, Orion180, CommScope, UChicago Medicine and Pirelli are all further represented with logo placements on the VF-25.
“We had a very encouraging year in 2024 so I’m naturally looking forward to seeing further progress made this season with the VF-25,” said Gene Haas, Chairman of MoneyGram Haas F1 Team. “The team really pulled together last year, both on and off-track, and obviously now we have two new drivers in Esteban (Ocon) and Ollie (Bearman) to incorporate into the team and hopefully keep us headed in the right direction. It was exciting to see the developments made last season and I’m trusting that momentum will continue to grow and translate into further performance gains.”
“Our motivation levels have never been higher heading into a brand-new season,” enthused Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal of MoneyGram Haas F1 Team. “To have been in the fight for sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship all the way to the final round in 2024 was great to be a part of – the level of development we enjoyed throughout the year was unprecedented in our history. To be going into our tenth season in Formula 1 with the belief that we can compete, and with the team really coming together the way it did, I’m personally very excited to see what we can deliver with the VF-25.”
Komatsu continued; “All our functions across Kannapolis, Banbury and Maranello have been working hard to ensure we can hit the ground running again in Bahrain. Our design office in Italy, under the guidance of Andrea De Zordo, have worked tirelessly to evolve the successful concept we had with the VF-24, and its upgrades, and build on those strengths and apply into the VF-25 design. We’re all eager to get going with Esteban (Ocon) and Ollie (Bearman) and get some milage under our belts prior to racing in Australia next month.”
“As we enter our third year of title partnership with MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, it’s as exciting as ever to see the MoneyGram brand proudly displayed across the VF-25,” stated Greg Hall, MoneyGram Chief Marketing Officer. “This journey alongside the team has been nothing short of extraordinary – together reaching new heights and creating meaningful, impactful connections with our customers and fans. We've created something truly special, and we can’t wait for the year ahead.”
What is your summary of last season and what were the successes?
Andrea De Zordo – Technical Director (ADZ): 2024 was a very long year, but for me, the relationship between the Italian HQ and the UK HQ was probably the best thing about last season. We’re a lot more aligned, we discuss a lot, and I think it’s a relationship that is working well. We’ve improved a lot the strength of the design office, we’ve improved a lot our aero in terms of methodology, tools, and that’s a process that started already some time ago, and although we still have a lot to do in that respect, we are on the right path.
On track, the result was great. It was better than anyone could’ve initially hoped for, and although we didn’t obtain sixth place, in general it was a great year.
Davide Paganelli – Head of Aerodynamics (DP): Last year we grew a lot in terms of design resource and we also gained a lot of confidence that we can definitely do better. The mood in the design office today is absolutely positive, we can feel the energy here. Last season we were able to demonstrate to ourselves and the rest of the grid that we can do a very good job.
We consider 2024 a success because we came into this season being last in the championship. It was really difficult to be able to deliver something positive with the same resource, but by changing the organizational structure we unlocked the potential of team members, and that was really satisfying.
The evolution of VF-25, what were the main areas of focus, and what do you expect to see from the new car out the gate in Bahrain testing
ADZ: The main performance contribution comes from the aero side, so the main point of focus has been again trying to grow in that area as much as possible. In parallel to that, every year we try to write down a point or quality of the car that isn’t good, so every year we try to improve the general quality of it, fixing small problems that may be a small thing, but all together improve the car.
Another important fact that we know is last year the car had some specific limitations and we tried to do some specific work to try to address that area, and we’ll see the result of it.
Finally, I think we can say that we need to improve our trackside operations. Sometimes last year we weren’t perfect, and left some opportunities, so we need to improve in that respect also.
DP: Our focus was the points of weakness identified in the VF-24. With the help of the performance team, we tried to work on the whole car as a package to be able to solve the issue. An indication of this is that we worked a lot on the rear of the car, and particularly the rear wing. I think that we’ve done a really good job on this for 2025.
We believe the package we’ve designed is a really good one in terms of development. Obviously, we must check if the delivery is what we expect. If we’re able to see on track what we think we're discovering in the wind tunnel, I think that we can have a massive boost from the very first race.
We’ve tried to design a car that can adapt to different races, as one of the weaknesses we had last year was not being able to be able to perform at the same level at circuits with different characteristics. I think that we did a good job in trying to close this kind of gap as well as providing a configuration that is better in hotter races. We know at the beginning of the season we have some hot races, so we should be able to compete.
Does it pose an issue having two brand new drivers behind the wheel of the VF-25 as opposed to incumbents whose styles and strengths, you’re familiar with for feedback etc?
ADZ: For sure, we’ll need a little bit of time just for both sides of the garage to become familiar with their new drivers. It takes some time to ensure the small things are sorted, like making them comfortable in the car, and how they like certain processes etc. I’ve found them both to be very committed, smiling and motivated, and that’s left all of us with a good impression and a good feeling for the year. All these points help with motivating the team – and that’s so important when things aren’t going well, or people get tired during a long season.
DP: For us, it’s not been a challenge designing for different drivers. We try to design the car to improve the weakness we have. We are sure that the new drivers have a lot of capability. They’re really, really good drivers and they can provide excellent feedback and also help us to go even further in the understanding of the car.
We’ve had positive conversations with them and both are keen to try to understand the car, try to understand the strength of the car, and they are ready to adapt or try to adapt their driving style to follow the strength of the car. It's really positive from our side to hear this as a design office.
How will things like a full TPC program - new to this season for the team - help in its efforts to move forward?
ADZ: For us, it’s a good opportunity for younger engineers to learn the job and gain experience. It's difficult to get that during a race weekend, so the opportunity for them to grow and learn in a slightly more relaxed environment as a small team is a great opportunity.
DP: It's a fantastic way to train staff and internal resources and to have them ready as soon as we need them. For us, it’s good to build the relationship between engineers and team members at the track. It’s an important way to build relationships and establish a good communication between the team, which wasn’t possible before.
Expectations for the 2025 season; do you see the grid continually bunching up and what triggers your timeline for upgrades through the season?
ADZ: I expect it to be a very, very tough season – a tight field and strong competition. Every point will be a battle, and we need to be perfect. We need to be focused from the beginning and not leave any opportunity, because it will cost us.
DP: We want to improve what we did last year and to be able to build again as a team. Continuing to work on the relationship we were able to find in working together better, ready for the next challenge ahead, which comes in the shape of the 2026 regulations.
It’s not clear right now if teams are going to push or not with the current car but I highly doubt they’re any other team will give up. I expect a very tough and tight competition again.
Do you already have one eye on the 2026 new car? When will focus switch to that and what are the key demands presented in the ’26 package?
ADZ: It’s been discussed for some time now because there’s been a big job with the FIA to define the rules. The challenge is huge, there are very big changes and the new aero platform, new rules on how to manage aero plus how to manage energy, and it’s a completely different way to do it from a performance point of view. I say challenge, but it’s going to be a fun one.
DP: We’ve already started working on our 2026 car, as FIA regulations permit teams to start working seriously on the project in terms of aerodynamics from January 2, 2025. We started doing both the simulation and started preparing the wind tunnel activities for the new car.
We know that because the competition will be very tight, we have to provide in-season updates, and we’ll try to use the same philosophy as the previous year, ensuring we’re happy with the direction and we can see results before proceeding with further updates.
This is the tenth season in the sport for MoneyGram Haas F1 Team – the design office in Maranello is still a relatively recent addition to the overall team package, and continues to be an area of internal growth – what’s the most satisfying part of the job integrating into the wider team and developing an ambitious group of designers and engineers?
ADZ: I’ve been with the team for four years, and for me, I enjoyed last season a lot. It’s been a year since all the changes happened internally. Haas has kept investing and we’ve grown a lot. I like a lot the attention that Haas as a team has put into trying to make the environment better, even in small ways. We know we don’t have the car based in Italy, so to have more team members traveling to Banbury or trackside has helped endlessly. Soon we’ll have our first show car in the Maranello office, and they’re super cool things to motivate.
In the space of one year, it’s been a lot but great to see a complete change in the feeling of people working here. There’s a lot more confidence, knowing the investment is here, so to me, it’s a great time to be here.
DP: I really like that I can feel my contribution to the team, that’s definitely more difficult in a bigger team. I feel that at Haas, every single employee can really help the team to improve.
