Romain Grosjean says this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix will be a challenge for his Haas F1 Team, particularly as they go there unsure whether they will be able to get the Pirelli tyres to work with their VF17 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Haas dropped to eighth in the Constructors’ Championship last weekend at the Circuit of The Americas thanks to Carlos Sainz Jr. scoring a seventh place finish for the Renault Sport Formula 1 Team, but heading into Mexico, Grosjean is hopeful of finding the grip levels needed to be competitive.
“[We have to] find the right set-up and find the right way to get the tyres to work at their best in those conditions, which is always a challenge,” said Grosjean.
“The more grip you have, the better you are. I think even with more downforce, we’re still going to lose the same amount as we did last year in terms of percentage, compared to a normal track. It’s going to be slippery.”
The team’s tyre issues have been widely documented this season, with different circuits and different conditions having varying effects on their fortunes, and although Grosjean feels they have improved, there is still a lot of work to be done to overcome these problems.
“I guess that’s still our Achilles’ heel,” said Grosjean. “We’re still struggling a bit with getting our tyres right. That comes with time and experience.
“We are getting better. We’re all working hard to find the right answers. Sometimes though, we still don’t have them. We do on some occasions, which is great, but on others we don’t. We just have to come to a racetrack and see, then we try to do our best from there.
“Some circuits you need a slow out-lap not to heat the tyres too hard. Other circuits you really need to push hard on the out-lap to generate the temperature and the grip. It really does change circuit to circuit. We just have to go and see.”
