In only its third season, Rich Energy Haas F1 Team finished fifth in the 2018 World Constructors Championship behind Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault.
The American an outfit was often the fourth quickest car on the grid but missed out on vital points finishes such as their unsafe pit releases that led to Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean’s Australian Grand Prix retirements.
Speaking to RACER, Guenther Steiner acknowledged the team failed to take every chance, but says that is in part due to the quality of its rivals as it gets closer to challenging for the title.
“I don’t think there is an obvious weakness,” He said.
“I just think that the higher up you get, the air gets thinner. I wouldn’t say it gets more aggressive but you need to be perfect. Every little thing you miss counts more, or at least you think it does anyway. You fight with better teams so you miss opportunities.
“So there’s not one thing which stands out completely that we are not good at, we need to get better at everything. You know Formula 1 is a very difficult business and you just need to be perfect if you want to be on top, and we are by no means perfect.”
Credit: Rich Energy Haas F1 Team
Hass unveiled a new black and gold livery as part of its new sponsorship with Rich Energy for the 2019 season but Steiner believes that as the team continues to compete, the group will grow in experience.
“I put that one down a little bit to our immaturity. We have got very experienced people, but you need to make your own experiences. It needs to be in the process that you get experience, and everything needs to be perfect to compete at that level,” He said.
“So I think we’re getting better by the day, but the day will come that we go backwards and some people cannot wait for that. So do we with other teams, that’s competition, so I’m not getting upset with them, but I think all in all we cannot be unhappy with what we’ve done so far.”
