Romain Grosjean feels the Haas F1 Team still has the best ‘baseline’ car within the midfield pack on the Formula 1 grid, although they are being hampered by an apparent inability to get Pirelli’s tyres in the operating window they need for the VF-19 to score points.
After four races of 2019, Grosjean has yet to break into the top ten on race day despite qualifying inside the top ten on three separate occasions, while team-mate Kevin Magnussen has only one points finish, which came in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix back in March.
Grosjean has only finished one of the first four races, with his eleventh place result in the Chinese Grand Prix the closest the team has come to points since Magnussen took sixth place at Albert Park, while the last race in Azerbaijan highlighted the team’s issues with the tyres, with neither driver in contention for points or even a top ten start thanks at the Baku City Circuit.
Despite the disappointments of the early races, particularly when it came to tyre temperatures, Grosjean remains adamant that if Haas were to get the tyres into the right window, they would again show just how strong a car the VF-19 is, and good points would come their way.
“The baseline of the car is still the best in the midfield, to be fair,” Grosjean is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “I believe downforce and so on is there, but if you can’t get the tyres to work, whatever you have it doesn’t seem to be working.
“I’ll be in the simulator next week. I’m going to try the update for Barcelona. It’s quite a big one and hopefully it helps. But if we don’t get the tyres in the window it’s just pointless.
“I don’t think it’s downforce[-related] because I believe we have more downforce than some other cars in the midfield, and they can run the tyres, so it has to be somewhere else.”
