Romain Grosjean says the Haas F1 Team needs to get on top of its aerodynamic development programme during the 2018 season if it is to avoid the mid-season slip in performance they have had in their two seasons to date in Formula 1.
The Frenchman has been at the team since they debuted in the 2016 Australian Grand Prix, and although they have started both of their campaigns strongly, they have often been left behind in the development race, which means Haas finished eighth in the Constructors’ Championship in both seasons.
Grosjean feels the team have often found it difficult to bring in updates and make them work on the car immediately, and they can lose months in development as a result.
“The best is to focus on our own work and we know where we can improve,” said Grosjean to Motorsport.com. “There are a few areas where we need to focus on and get better.
“One is making sure that the updates when they are coming are working well and they have been validated before, so not losing three months of time to bring something that doesn’t bring what it was supposed to do. I am not going to go through everything because it is confidential but that is just an example.
“This is two years in a row where the trend is to go a bit down during the year. We started twice with a very, very good platform and we have been struggling with the tyres.”
The tyre issues for Haas have been more pronounced than for other teams, but there is work behind the scenes to try and at least reduce the problems ahead of the 2018 season.
“We are not up there with tyre usage and understanding,” admitted Grosjean. “Behind the scenes there are a lot of things we can coordinate better between the factory in Maranello, the one in Dallara and the one in England to make things run smoother and more efficient.”
