Guenther Steiner admits the way the 2018 Formula 1 season has begun for his Haas F1 Team has not been what they were hoped for, nor do the results represent the kind of performance the VF-18 possesses.
The team has finished eighth in the Constructors’ Championship in their first two seasons in Formula 1 and find themselves in the same position this year with only eleven points to their name despite having their most competitive car to date, with circumstances seemingly going against them since the beginning of the campaign.
Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were on course for potential top six finishes in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix before separate pit stop issues knocked them both out, while both drivers suffered in the Chinese Grand Prix by not pitting for new tyres when the safety car was deployed.
The latest misfortune came in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix when Magnussen was hit at turn two by Marcus Ericsson on the opening lap and ran for the remainder of the race with a damaged car, while Grosjean crashed out of the race behind the safety car after accidentally changing his brake bias on his steering wheel while warming up his tyres.
“The potential is there that we get some more because the car is constantly at a good level. Even when the other ones are bringing upgrades,” Steiner is quoted as saying by Crash. “We were fast on five race tracks [including Barcelona pre-season], which is a quarter of the season.
“Yes we could have one or two races where we are lagging a bit behind but otherwise we are always between the fourth and fifth fastest car over the weekend, we just have the second least points at the moment.
“It doesn’t do credit to what we have got. We just need to get a good weekend and we will have forgotten about the bad ones.”
Steiner feels confident that they can turn their season around and turn their promise into good points, providing they can put a whole weekend together without compromising themselves, something that has let them down many times in 2018, including last weekend in Azerbaijan.
“The whole weekend, until qualifying started, was very well executed, we had no down time with the car and we did a lot of good things,” said Steiner. “The guys know themselves if they are good or not.
“Until you get the momentum going you assure them they are doing good. They keep on coming back because they are convinced that we can get it done. They are not lacking.
“In the position like we are in we have got a good team, everything is good, we just need to get it together for one weekend, execute it well over the whole weekend and we will be fine.
“Just at the moment it feels like we always let it slip. Then you always feel like you are running out of time but then again it’s only race four. I’m not saying its fantastic, we should have done better. But it’s not the end of the world.”
