Guenther Steiner admitted it was pleasing to see his Haas F1 Team score two points in the Singapore Grand Prix against all expectations, but it was not ideal to drop behind the Renault Sport Formula 1 Team in the championship standings.
The team principal of the youngest team on the grid had not expected either Romain Grosjean or Kevin Magnussen to challenge for points after a difficult qualifying session saw them qualify fifteenth and sixteenth respectively, but circumstances played into their hands, and Grosjean was able to finish ninth.
Magnussen was in points contention as well, and had jumped into the top ten thanks to being the first driver to switch to dry tyres, but ultimately he was forced to retire thanks to an engine-related issue.
With Jolyon Palmer scoring a sixth place finish, Haas fell behind the Enstone-based outfit in the Constructors’ Championship, but Steiner insists the team will do everything they can to reclaim that position in the remaining races.
“To go away with two points here, for sure we worked hard for it, but we didn’t expect it,” said Steiner. “All in all, we got a bit of a good end to this.
“On the other side, we’re now eighth in the championship and not seventh. Coming in here we knew these things could happen, but we will fight hard to get back to seventh. Our drivers, our whole team, did a good job.
“There was nothing wrong with our strategy today. We always reacted very well. Both drivers kept the cars safe. Kevin would’ve brought his home but he had an electronics issue. We’ll investigate that and why we had to shut it down.
“Romain did a good job and came home ninth with two points. We keep on going.”
