Haas F1 Team principal Guenther Steiner admitted the Japanese Grand Prix was “not the best of our days” despite closing the gap to Renault Sport Formula One Team in the constructors championship to only eight points.
Kevin Magnussen retired early on while Romain Grosjean secured his first points finish in four races with eighth place.
Magnussen clashed with Charles Leclerc in the opening laps at the Suzuka International Racing Course and retired not long after due to the damage sustained in the incident.
“The incident with Kevin, where Leclerc ran straight into him, took him out of the race, so we were one car down.”
Grosjean had a better time of it than his team-mate but still had some issues that plagued him throughout the race.
“Grosjean had a few issues with the car, with the telemetry, and with the handling of it.
“The car was pulling on the straights.
“At one point we thought he had a puncture, but luckily we didn’t.
“Then we had the incident with Perez overtaking us at the Virtual Safety Car, which we still need to look into.”
Steiner is still hopefully that the team can catch Renault in the final four races as they closed the gap by another three points in Japan.
“The good side is we closed the gap to Renault by three points, and I hope we make the rest up in the next four races.”
