Guenther Steiner admits the Haas F1 Team continues to have ‘no clue’ to why they struggle so much with Pirelli’s 2019 compounds after another tough and pointless race at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday.
The team had a strong Qualifying performance on Saturday, with Kevin Magnussen setting the fifth fastest time in Q3. However, the Dane would start the Austrian Grand Prix tenth on the grid due to a gearbox change penalty, just ahead of team-mate Romain Grosjean, who was eliminated by the narrowest of margins in Q2.
However, come race day, tyres once again played their part in proceedings, with Haas again falling down the order. Magnussen, who’s race was compromised by a drive-through penalty for being out of position on the grid at the start, ended down in nineteenth, behind Williams Racing’s George Russell, while Grosjean was sixteenth, having struggled with the tyres right from the start.
The team remain ninth in the Constructors’ Championship as a result, with Team Principal Steiner admitting it was an immensely disappointing and difficult afternoon at the Red Bull Ring, and he knows that the team really need to get a better understanding to just why they seem to struggle for performance on a Sunday when the car is obviously quick.
“A disappointing race, obviously,” said Steiner. “Running around like that is negatively amazing. After qualifying in fifth position, to then have a race like this, I can’t say anything other than it’s disappointing.
“We’ll keep working on it, try to get a better understanding of why this kind of performance is happening from qualifying to the race. We just do not understand it, at the moment we have no clue.”
