Monaco GP the start of Grosjean’s F1 recovery - Steiner 

Haas Formula 1 team principal Günther Steiner believes under-fire driver Romain Grosjean is already on the road to recovery following a disappointing start to the 2018 season. 

Grosjean is suffering his worst start to an F1 season having failed to score a single point in the opening five rounds this year. The Frenchman crashed out under the Safety Car in Baku while running in sixth place, before causing a multi-car collision on the opening lap of the Spanish Grand Prix as his race came to a premature end.

Adding to his challenge of trying to end his points drought around Monte Carlo’s tight and twisty streets, the Frenchman will serve a three-place grid penalty for the incident at this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix. Grosjean's struggles have led to speculation about his future with the American squad, but Steiner dismissed the rumours as “unfair” on Wednesday.

When asked about Grosjean’s current mindset amid his poor start to season, Steiner told Sky Sports: “I would say it was pretty good. In FP2 he was calm. 

“You can never take it easy here obviously but he wasn’t trying to get the last bit out of it to build his confidence up but he was good in spirits so nothing unusual. I think he’s starting to recover. Hopefully nothing comes in the way and we have a good qualifying.”

Grosjean set the ninth-quickest time in opening practice on Thursday before seeing his FP2 running hampered by a floor issue, while teammate Kevin Magnussen was restricted to just seven laps in FP1 after encountering a fuel problem. The Dane was 16th-fastest in the afternoon session, two places ahead of Grosjean. 

Following the team’s early struggles, Steiner admitted Haas is bracing itself for a difficult weekend of "damage limitation" in Monaco. 

“In FP2 we weren’t where we want to be we struggled in sector one but I think it’s down a little bit to FP1,” he explained. “We didn’t run a lot, we had a fuel issue with Kevin’s car and an issue with the floor with Romain’s car so the running was limited.

“I hope we do a lot of damage limitation. But in the moment it’s damage limitation it looks like because with Romain having the three-grid penalty as well that will not help as well but we have another session in front of us so I think we can come up with something.”