Guenther Steiner says there were many positives to take away from the first day of the Australian Grand Prix weekend, but there were also things that could have worked out much better for the Haas F1 Team on Friday.
The team principal of the American outfit watched from the pit wall as Romain Grosjean finished inside the top seven in both sessions, with his sixth place run in the afternoon session particularly impressive within three-quarters of a second of the outright pace.
But on the other side of the garage, there were issues for Kevin Magnussen, with the Dane ending seventeenth in the morning session, completing only thirteen laps in the process, with some of those issues also eating into the afternoon, although he was able to finish the day inside the top ten.
Steiner feels the team has a good understanding of the VF-18 and what they can do this weekend, but with the weather conditions seemingly unsettled going forward, particularly on Saturday when rain is forecast, things could end up being more unpredictable.
“Not a bad day, but not a perfect one either,” said Steiner. “We had some small issues with Kevin in FP1 which carried into FP2. In the end, though, we came out not too bad.
“We have a good understanding of what we can do. We’ve got some more work to do tomorrow, but then I think everything changes a bit, because it’s supposed to be raining all day long.”
