Romain Grosjean sees no reason why his Haas F1 Team cannot score as many points in the second half of the season as they did in the first half of the year, and at least maintain their seventh place in the championship.
So far the team have scored twenty-nine points in the first eleven races, with Grosjean having contributed eighteen of those and Kevin Magnussen eleven, with the Frenchman’s best result coming at the Austrian Grand Prix when he finished sixth.
The team have scored as many points as they did throughout the whole 2016 season already, but last year the form of the team dropped significantly in the second half of the campaign, with only one points finish for Grosjean coming in the final twelve races.
“We are stronger than last year,” said Grosjean to the official Formula 1 website. “Our development is already focusing on 2018, but as the changes are not massive we can push this car harder now.
“We can set up the car a bit better and we are making the right choices strategy-wise, so the odds are pretty high that we could even score more points than 29.”
Unlike in 2016, when Esteban Gutierrez was his team-mate and failed to score a point, Grosjean has a team-mate this season who is a genuine top-ten contender, and the Frenchman feels having Magnussen alongside him is good for the team, as they push each other forward.
“Kevin is a good team mate and he is doing a great job,” said Grosjean. “We are getting on very well. We are pushing each other and I would say that it is key to every team to have two drivers who are pushing each other, because if you have a driver who is down a bit on performance then the other also relaxes a bit.”