Romain Grosjean will be interested to see just how much progress the Haas F1 Team has made this year in this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix after they were not at all competitive there last season.
The Frenchman says the race around the Baku Street Circuit will be a good challenge for the team that has a strong start to the 2018 campaign, even if Grosjean himself is still seeking his first points finish of the year.
“Baku is definitely a different circuit from the rest,” said Grosjean. “There’s that massive long straight line – where top speed plays a key role – and then you’ve got the very twisty part around the castle, where the balance needs to be good.
“It’s going to be a good challenge. It’s not a race where we were very competitive last year. It’ll be interesting to see how much progress we’ve made. It’s a really exciting grand prix – a lot can happen. There are always good opportunities, so we’ll try to get them there.”
Grosjean says it is important Haas continue to bring updates to the VF-18 in order to keep themselves involved at the sharp end of the midfield battle, and he sees no reason why they cannot be the best of the rest this season behind the big three teams.
“I’m hoping so. We’re working on that. If we do achieve that at the end of the season, it would be amazing,” said Grosjean. “It’s development of the car, bringing updates, and making sure we exploit the platform 100 percent as much as we can.
“That’s really what we need. We’re competing against big teams, and they’re going to bring updates. We need to stay there as well.”
