Guenther Steiner was full of praise for his Haas F1 Team mechanics and engineers after a problem-free and promising Friday at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen may have finished eighteenth and nineteenth respectively in the afternoon session as the duo focused on longer runs with their VF-22’s, but when they turned up the pace and put some focus into qualifying simulations, both ended up inside the top ten.
Schumacher ended the day eighth fastest and Magnussen tenth, with the team proving that the pace they had during pre-season testing at the same circuit last week was genuine. It will also be a confidence boost to the team who were well off the pace in every race weekend in 2021.
Steiner, the Team Principal of Haas, had been fearing reliability issues coming into the weekend after they suffered multiple issues during both pre-season tests, but a trouble-free day was welcome, and it was pleasing to see both drivers finishing inside the top ten. Overall, the team completed ninety-one laps on Friday, forty-seven with Schumacher and forty-four with Magnussen.
“It was a good day today,” said Steiner. “Surprisingly there were no issues with the car, no gremlins, nothing. That means the team did a fantastic job over the last week from testing to now – it was relentless work.
“For FP1 and FP2 we were out there, and we are where we actually want to be.”
Steiner says the team can now go into the rest of the weekend with confidence, and he hopes the pace and reliability they showed on Friday will continue into Saturday and Sunday.
“We just need to take it now to qualifying tomorrow with the same pace and reliability, as well as for the race,” he insisted.
