Only three races to go is the best news for Haas - Steiner

Haas Formula 1 boss Guenther Steiner says “the best news” for his side is that there are only three races remaining in the 2019 season after a tough Mexican Grand Prix.

The American squad’s struggles continued in Mexico City as Kevin Magnussen finished a lowly 15th, two places ahead of teammate Romain Grosjean.

Both drivers struggled for pace throughout Sunday’s 71-lap race and looked set to be beaten by Robert Kubica’s Williams on merit until the Pole suffered a late puncture.

“The way we directed the race was okay, it’s the car is just not fast enough,” Steiner said.

“What can you do? You try to get the best out of it, especially with Kevin that’s what was there, there wasn’t more there. That’s it. So that’s the positive.

“I’m not disappointed because my hopes were always very low, so it’s like the disappointment goes away. The best news? It’s only three more [races] to go!"

Grosjean said he was not happy with his car since struggling in final practice on Saturday morning, and could predict how his race would unfold as a result.

“It was a tough afternoon,” the Frenchman explained. “Nothing was working very well, we just have to hope that the next race is better.

“We need to keep looking to find out what’s going on with the car. Here, it hasn’t felt right since FP3, and the race confirmed that.”

Magnussen’s race was hampered when he picked up damage in a collision with the recovering Red Bull of Max Verstappen, though Steiner had no qualms with the incident.

“That situation I find was okay, that was racing for me,” he said. “They weren’t playing, they were racing.

“Stewards sometimes don’t understand racing, but this time they understood that it wasn’t important enough. Maybe that was the biggest reason. If it had been at the front then ‘wow!’, but this was racing.

“Like at the start as well Kimi [Raikkonen] ran into Kevin, he lost part of the floor on the left-hand side but that for me is racing. That can happen if you are in these positions, the risk is higher.”

Magnussen added: “I think we did a good job considering we made a one-stop strategy work.

“We had damage on the car, I was hit by Kimi at the start, we were all squeezed up and he damaged my floor.

“Taking those things into consideration, and knowing that we just didn’t have the pace today, I think we did the best that we could.”