Haas F1 set for first-ever TPC test ahead of 2025 season

Following a strong seventh-place finish in the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship in 2024, Haas enters 2025 with a completely new driver lineup. Esteban Ocon has joined the team after a move from Alpine, and super-sub Oliver Bearman earned a promotion to a full-time seat with Haas alongside him.

Now the team is set for another first, their first-ever Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) run this week in Spain.

Under F1 regulations teams can use old cars for testing sessions throughout an F1 season. Haas has never utilized this regulation until now, and later this week the team will head to Circuito de Jerez on the outskirts of Jerez de la Frontera in Spain, for the session. The team will use the VF-23, their challenger for the 2023 season, for the test.

In addition to Ocon and Bearman, Toyota GAZOO Racing driver Ritomo Miyata will participate in the test. Last year Haas announced a “technical partnership” with TGR, under which the two entities will “share expertise and knowledge, as well as resources.”

When that arrangement was announced, TGR pointed to the partnership as a means of developing their own drivers alongside Haas.

“We are pleased to announce that MoneyGram Haas F1 Team and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing have concluded a basic agreement to enter a technical partnership such as Haas vehicle development. We would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Gene Haas, Mr. Ayao Komatsu, Mr. Stefano Domenicali (CEO – Formula 1), Mr. Fred Vasseur (Team Principal – Scuderia Ferrari), and all our existing partners of the team for their exceptional cooperation and understanding in this collaboration,” said Tomoya Takahashi, President of GAZOO Racing Company. “By competing alongside MoneyGram Haas F1 Team at the pinnacle of motorsports, we aim to cultivate drivers, engineers, and mechanics while strengthening the capabilities of MoneyGram Haas F1 Team and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing, and we desire to contribute to motorsports and the automotive industry.”

Following this landmark TPC session for Haas, they will join the other nine F1 teams at another first for the team, and the sport. F1 begins the 2025 campaign with a launch event at The O2 Arena in London next month featuring all ten teams, in part to celebrate the sport’s 75th season.