Guenther Steiner feels the midfield battle remains as tough as ever as the Haas F1 Team head to the Mexican Grand Prix sitting eighth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Neither Romain Grosjean nor Kevin Magnussen broke into the points during the team’s home race at the Circuit of The Americas last weekend, and with Carlos Sainz Jr. scoring a seventh place finish on his first appearance for the Renault Sport Formula 1 Team, it meant the French outfit leapfrogged the American team in the Constructors’ Championship.
“It doesn’t get any easier, especially for us, because the bigger teams like Renault have stepped up more than we did in the last few races,” said Team Principal Steiner. “It’s up and down, and it’s unpredictable what is happening.
“Who would’ve thought that’d we’d finish eighth and ninth in Japan? Nobody would’ve given us that credit to work to those positions on merit. Anything can happen in this midfield, and I hope we’re able to make the best out of it.”
The high altitude of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez poses different problems for teams, and Steiner says it is important to run with as much downforce as possible, and whilst they have not had the best results there, the team are ready for the challenge.
“You need your highest downforce level – whatever you can you put on there because of the air being so thin,” said Steiner. “Cooling – you never have enough up at that altitude. It is different, but we know we have to adapt to it.
“You always try to get as much downforce as possible. It hasn’t been a favourable circuit for us. We’re not afraid of it, but it will be a challenge.”
