Summer shutdown one of the best things F1’s done – Steiner
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner feels Formula 1’s mandatory two-week shutdown is one of the sport’s smartest moves to help both teams and maintain interest in the sport over a season.
Following the Hungarian Grand Prix, all F1 teams will go into the traditional summer shutdown where no major work or developments are allowed over the break before preparations for the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of August.
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner feels Formula 1’s mandatory two-week shutdown is one of the sport’s smartest moves to help both teams and maintain interest in the sport over a season.
Following the Hungarian Grand Prix, all F1 teams will go into the traditional summer shutdown where no major work or developments are allowed over the break before preparations for the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of August.
Haas, who will also skip the two-day second in-season test which immediately follows the Hungary race, has been one of the teams which has openly admitted to accepting the tough challenge of the extensive workload on its crew with five races in the space of six weeks, plus the added pressure of Pirelli tyre testing after the British GP at Silverstone.
With a three-week pause after the Hungarian race, Steiner is confident of the timely boost the break will provide for Haas as well as F1 fans.
“I think this year, more than ever before, it is quite important. You’re not allowed to work, so you don’t try to do anything,” Steiner said. “The shutdown is one of the best things F1 has done because people have something to look forward to in the middle of the season. Otherwise, it’s a never-ending drill.
“Everyone is putting the last little effort in before the summer shutdown, and then they go for two weeks and, normally, we all come back a little refreshed. I think it’s important, and I also look forward to it.”
Despite being the youngest F1 team on the current grid, with the US squad midway through its third season, Steiner feels it has learnt from its first two years and will not lose ground to its rivals during the break.
“We are now in our third year. We are well prepared, well organised,” he said. “The guys strip the cars, get everything ready, so when they come back after shutdown, they just need to put the car together again.
“The engineers, they do all the post-work after the race before they go on shutdown, then they start again as soon as it’s over to prepare for Spa.”
