Guenther Steiner has admitted that his Haas F1 Team may have compromised themselves at the end of the 2017 season by turning their attention to their 2018 challenger too early.
The team did the same in 2016 but with regulations remaining pretty static next year, Steiner feels they could have continued developing the VF17 for longer and properly take the fight to the Renault Sport Formula 1 Team and Scuderia Toro Rosso in the battle for sixth place in the championships.
Ultimately, Haas finished eighth in the championship for a second consecutive year, but Steiner is confident that the early switch to the 2018 car pays off and they have a much more competitive campaign.
“It was a little bit less up and down [compared to 2016], but it was still a rollercoaster particularly in the second half of the season,” said Steiner on Motorsport.com.
“With the developments, I think we expected more but then again, we were fully aware that we had changed over early to next year’s car. With hindsight, would we do something different? Maybe we would develop a little bit longer with this year’s car, but you cannot go back.
“It’s something in between and there is no clear answer. We had to focus on next year’s car because the last thing we want to do is to have a big drop in performance next year. So I am pretty confident that next year’s car will be better, otherwise we have wouldn’t have done that.”
