Haas still fast enough to be leading midfield

Haas may not have the results to show for it, but team principal Gunther Steiner insists the US squad still boasts the speed required to lead Formula 1’s midfield. 

The American outfit found impressive gains over the winter and appeared to have the most competitive overall package out of the midfield pack but has so far failed to capitalise on its potential and sits eighth in the constructors’ championship. 

Haas looked set to score a big result in Australia until a disastrous pair of botched pit stops ruined its race, while a series of incidents and issues have hampered Romain Grosjean, with teammate Kevin Magnussen recording all of the team’s 19 points from the opening seven rounds.

It introduced a significant upgrade package in Canada but an engine problem curtailed Grosjean’s qualifying and led to him starting last, while Magnussen struggled to make progress from 11th on the grid as Haas failed to score points for the second consecutive race. 

“What gets you over the disappointment is four weeks ago in Barcelona we were best of the rest by a good margin and we haven’t lost that,” Steiner explained. 

“You never stop, you never said ‘oh we need a break’ and you just wait until you get lucky. We always try to do our best and come up with the best with what we can do.

“It is circumstances, we didn’t do anything wrong but we always try to evaluate this and try to get better for the next event. What I take away is the car is still quick.”

Grosjean, who is enduring his worst-ever start to an F1 season, labelled Haas’ Montreal update as the best the team has produced since its debut in 2016 and believes a run of improved results is just around the corner. 

“It’s not a disaster, it’s a lot of bad luck,” Grosjean said. “But the car is fast, the team is improving and growing. The upgrade is working well, the results are not what we were expecting or what we could have – but I always try and see the positive.

“It’s the best one,” he added. “It’s the biggest one and the best one. From the first lap in FP1, I knew it was going to be fast.”

And according to Magnussen, Haas would have been in a worse position had it not introduced its revised aerodynamic package in time for the Canadian Grand Prix. 

"We knew this track was not going to be ideal for our car, because we are not the strongest in low-speed corners," he said. ”But we have a clear feeling that our upgrade has delivered what we expected it to, and without it we would have been a lot worse.

"It's a development race, so the other teams are developing their cars as well, but I'm confident as it stands now, with this upgrade, we would still be in the race for fourth best car. I'm sure at some faster circuits we will be similar to what we were in Barcelona.”