Guenther Steiner says his Haas F1 Team may not be as strong this weekend at the Hungaroring as they have been in recent races, but he cannot foresee such a fall from grace as the team suffered in the Monaco Grand Prix at the end of May.
The American team had a dreadful weekend in the principality, with the slow nature of the street circuit highlighting the weaknesses of the VF-18, with Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean finishing well outside the points in thirteenth and fifteenth.
The Hungaroring is another slow circuit on the calendar, but Steiner feels the team will go into the race confident that they will fall well off the pace again, believing they will have learned from their problems from Monaco.
“Let’s wait and see on Friday in Hungary what we are capable of doing,” said Steiner. “I never go in beaten to a race already.
“We know what happened in Monte Carlo. We analysed that one and we know where we ended up. We know the reasons, and they will not happen in this race. We might not be as good as on the high-speed tracks, but I don’t think we’ll be really bad.
“We knew what went wrong in the races that went wrong for us. We’ve got a lot of talented people who can analyse all that and do better. How much better we can do, I don’t know. For sure, we are not going in beaten, saying we cannot achieve anything here.
“Our car, and our drivers, are good enough to get good results at all the tracks. Some are better than others, but nothing will hopefully be as bad as Monte Carlo.”
Steiner feels Haas are in the best place they’ve ever been when it comes to tyre management, and heading to the Hungaroring, he feels confident that it will not take look to adjust to the track surface and the temperatures.
“Tyre management is so different from racetrack to racetrack,” said Steiner. “You cannot compare one with another. You always have to learn again and apply what you know to each different track.
“Conditions change. In Hungary, it’s known as normally being very hot, but sometimes it isn’t too bad. Silverstone was never as hot as this year, and I think we performed well.
“We just need to adapt to the track surface and to the temperature when we get there. This year, we are a lot better prepared than previous years.”
