Haas F1 Team have a positive mindset heading into the 2020 Formula 1 season following two successful days of testing the proposed Pirelli tyre sets at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.
Romain Grosjean was in the car for the first day of testing, with test and development driver Pietro Fittipaldi taking over for the second.
The Frenchman completed a total of 146 laps, running 810.884km in total. His best lap time was a 1:39.526, which put him fifth on the timing board.
Grosjean said that the team had prepared very well going into the test, and the car performed better than he had expected.
“We’ve had a good test checking the 2019 tires versus the 2020 ones. We were seeing what we can prepare for next year, and which ones are better to run. I think it was a very positive day. The preparation was excellent, and the team have done a good job – I’m very happy with that,” he said.
He added that the made some slight amendments in terms of setup to see if they would make any difference, and noted that some were positive.
“We made a few minor tweaks to the car to see what we can learn for the future – some things were positive. I’m looking forward to meeting our 2020 challenger.”
Testing duties were handed over to Fittipaldi for the second day, who continued with the team’s testing program.
To begin with, he said it was a bit of a surprise getting back in the car as he has been racing in DTM for the rest of the season, and there is a noticeable change in the amount of G-force the body is subjected to.
“It was really good to be back testing, it’s been six months since I was last in the car in May at Barcelona. We got a lot of laps in today, a lot of long runs, which was good. I’ve been racing DTM this season, so then you come into a Formula One car and you get hit with the G-forces again through the corners, it’s really physical if you haven’t been driving one for a while.”
He went on to say he was pleased the team had been able to achieve everything they had set out to.
“Crucially we did everything we wanted to do today in terms of the run plan. We ran some pretty good laps and tested the 2019 tires versus the 2020 ones – mixing it up over some short and long runs to see the differences.”
“It’s been really good, I’m happy with our day, and of course I’ve enjoyed working with the whole team,” he concluded.
