Currently sitting an impressive fifth in the constructor’s championship, the Haas F1 team hope to continue their run of good fortune at the Chinese Grand Prix this weekend, by not only completing a further point’s haul for Romain Grosjean, but hopefully seeing Esteban Gutierrez make the chequered flag as well.
The team is looking to record a third points scoring result in Shanghai, something that was not in their modest plans at the start of the season, but a fortune they are more than happy to take. After getting both their drivers through to Q2 in Bahrain, with Grosjean also advancing through to Q3, the Kannapolis and Banbury based squad are hopeful of achieving similar results every race weekend.
Team Principal of Haas F1 team, Guenther Steiner advised:
“One of our goals is to take two cars to the finish, because we haven’t done that one yet. You always want to get better, and the next thing for us to do is take two cars to the finish and, hopefully, both score points.”
Photo Credit: Haas F1 Team
After two very strong races for Grosjean, the 29-year-old is enjoying every moment of his switch to the Haas F1 team. Asked if he thought the kind of success the American squad have already achieved was possible, the Frenchman advised:
“Well, initially no. I didn’t think it would be possible. Nobody thought like that. I thought, points early in the season, yes, but top-six finishes, I wasn’t thinking about that, but I am enjoying the moment.”
As well as finishing an impressive fifth at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Grosjean was also able to record the fastest lap of the race, showing a possible glimpse of just what the VF-16 is truly capable of. The Frenchman advised:
“Yes, I saw that on TV. It’s great. I think the best proof of what the VF-16 is capable of doing is the qualifying and race in Bahrain. Ninth in qualifying, saving tires, and then finishing sixth in the race.”
Photo Credit: Haas F1 Team
Teammate Gutierrez in comparison, has not had the brightest of starts. Being taken out of the Australian Grand Prix by Fernando Alonso in a spectacular incident that saw the Spaniard ruled out of the following race, whilst technical difficulties curtailed the Mexican’s efforts in Bahrain. But the former Ferrari reserve driver is still upbeat about his prospects going forward:
“I have the feeling that good times are just around the corner for us to get underway with scoring points consistently. We’ve had a good pace and a good car at two different tracks. I’m just going to keep preparing, keep pushing and keep fighting the same way because soon, the results will be there.”
The next challenge for the Haas F1 team is to maintain their impressive early performance. It will be a tough ask, but they have already learned so much in the first few rounds of the season, that they should now only go from strength to strength.
