Romain Grosjean believes there is still a bit of work Haas F1 Team can do on the VF-17 to make it better in Monaco.
The Frenchman had a tough opening day of practice for the Monaco Grand Prix, he finished Free Practice 1 in fifteenth. He struggled during this session, as he had an issue with Turn 1, a lock up caused him to go straight off. Grosjean was unable to recover and finished with a time of 1:15.321s. For Free Practice 2, he was unable to improve much and only set a fastest time of 1:14.022s to go fourteenth fastest.
Despite this performance, Grosjean is happy with the team’s work, with him looking forward to Saturday.
“We managed to stay out of trouble,” said Grosjean. “It’s a very tight midfield.
“We need to get all our sectors together. I think there’s a bit of work we can do on the car to make it better. In general, though, I’m happy with the work everyone’s done. I’m looking forward to Saturday. It’s harder and more challenging to drive here, but it’s more fun.”
Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen had a relatively similar day, in FP1 he managed to go thirteenth fastest behind the McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team of Stoffel Vandoorne. The Danish improved massively in FP2 to go ninth fastest with a time of 1:13.890s, splitting the two Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One drivers. Unlike Grosjean, Magnussen was able to get something more out of the VF-17 to improve on his time.
After the opening day of practice, Magnussen hopes Haas can be competitive for the rest of the weekend.
“I’m pretty happy with the day,” said Magnussen. “We got everything done that was on our program.
“The car’s not feeling bad, so I’m looking forward to qualifying on Saturday. It’s very fast here. It feels amazing and it’s really good fun to drive. Let’s hope we can be competitive, as well.”
