Steiner outlines ‘two chances’ Haas has to beat Renault

Haas team boss Guenther Steiner wants to ‘overtake them in court and on the race track’ fighting against Renault for fourth place in the Formula 1 world championship.

The US team closed the gap on Renault to 11 points with Kevin Magnussen’s eighth place at the Russian Grand Prix as the fight for the top midfield place heats up over the final third of the season.

The current deficit to the French manufacturer could be cut to one point if Romain Grosjean’s post-race disqualification from the Italian Grand Prix, where he finished sixth, is overturned with the matter being taken to court next month.

Grosjean was excluded from the Italian race results following a protest launched by Renault about the US squad’s modified floor design, with FIA race stewards declaring the car’s T-tray on his floor did not align with the rules of 50mm radius when viewed from below.

Steiner is eager for Haas to ‘overtake them on track’ with a late performance push for the final five races of the 2018 F1 campaign as the team targets taking fourth place from Renault ‘on all sides’.

“We have got two chances, we can overtake them in court or we can overtake them on the race track,” Steiner said. “So we will try to do both of those, and hopefully we can overtake them with both.

“On the race track we will try, we have got five races to go, five by four, you know how much that is so we are in good spirits and we will just keep on fighting like we always do. We will try to get them on all sides.”

After initially lodging its intent to appeal following the Italian GP, the formal Haas appeal was confirmed before last month’s Singapore Grand Prix with a court hearing in Paris scheduled for early November. A final decision will be confirmed before the end of the current F1 campaign.