The Spanish Grand Prix was one which held so much promise for the Haas F1 Team, especially after Qualifying. Both Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher started in the top ten, however, neither finished in the points.
Magnussen was caught up in a first lap incident, whereas Schumacher ended up being on the wrong strategy.
Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner, reflected on what was a disappointing Sunday afternoon in Spain.
“Obviously we took away some disappointment. We did a few things which weren’t perfect, but we have a lot of work to do. We can’t do anything about Kevin’s Turn 4 incident, you can’t learn a lot there and what we tried was something hoping that the safety car would come out. With Mick, we need to see why we ended up with the strategy we chose and what we can do to make it better for the future.
“I’m not jumping to conclusions, it wasn’t completely wrong as there were a lot of unknowns, especially in his first stint with the new tyres where we lost a lot of positions there, so we have to analyse that before coming to a conclusion.”
Haas can take some positives away though from the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, where they were one of the only teams not to introduce any upgrades. Despite this, Haas had one of their best ever qualifying sessions, raising hope for the American team.
Steiner discussed where he thinks Haas currently are in the running order, following last weekend.
“It’s very difficult to judge who found pace but the obvious ones were Mercedes and Alfa Romeo. With the others, I don’t know how much pace they found and it’s a one-off race with very strange conditions – it was very hot, very unusual for Spain – so we have to wait a few races to find that one out. We obviously chose not to put upgrades on but we made our car go quicker, at least in qualifying, so I think we’ve found something in the set-up.
“We have still got something in the car which we haven’t unleashed so let’s work a little more on that, but we made a very good step in Spain. We are in the midfield but the midfield this year, it depends on the race. In some races one car is good, and in others, somebody else. I think that is very interesting and it’s how it should be – it mixes up the field.”
With Haas qualifying so well, they could be in for a strong haul of points this weekend at the Monaco Grand Prix, an event Steiner refers to as a “classic”
“Monaco is obviously a classic, and it has been there forever. It’s one where we enjoy going to as well but there are a lot of events that are going in different directions. I always say, different directions are better because then fans can look forward to different specialties. Monaco is one of those specialties in the calendar.”