Steiner: ‘Very serious’ tyre problems not what F1 is about

Formula 1 races should not be so heavily influenced by tyre performance, according to Haas team principal Guenther Steiner.

Haas has struggled for pace since the Melbourne season-opener and has attributed its lack of performance down to being unable to get its tyres into the optimum working window.

For the third race in a row, the American squad failed to record any points in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, leaving the team eighth in the 2019 constructors’ championship.

“It’s so disappointing because we’ve got a good car,” Steiner said.

“We shouldn’t always be talking about whether a tyre works or not. It’s interesting but it’s not Formula 1 in my opinion.

“‘Did you get the tyre to work?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Oh, then I’m fast.’ ‘My tyre didn’t work so then I’m slow…’

“We spend millions and millions to develop these cars and then you’re out of the window and we cannot get going.”

Steiner said Haas knows what is causing its “very serious” tyre troubles but it is yet to find a cure.

“Other people can get it to work so we need to get it to work,” he explained.

“There’s no point saying ‘Oh, it’s not working’. Nine teams can get it to work. Who’s better? Who’s worse? We are absolutely the worst one to get it to work. I’m very conscious about that one.”

“It’s very serious, it’s disappointing because you go slower. That’s what it is. We know the cause now, we just need to find out how to fix it.

“We can talk for half an hour about it, we know what it is, we just need to fix it. If you ask me ‘what is [the fix]?’ I don’t know, otherwise I would fix it.”

Asked how confident he is about Haas’ prospects for the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix, Steiner replied: “Well my confidence level at the moment is not very high, obviously, as you can imagine!

“Confident? No. We need to see where we are going.”