Haas aiming to move up the order

Gene Haas says that he can't see why his team won't move up a couple of places in the constructor standings this year. In 2016, Haas finished their maiden season in Formula 1 in eighth place, with 29 points.

Romain Grosjean will remain at the team after a relatively successful first season, minus an on-going brake problem. He came home an incredible sixth on the team's debut in Australia and went one better in Bahrain when we came across the line fifth.

Grosjean will be joined by Kevin Magnussen who leaves Renault after one year, over a contract issue. Having proved themselves capable of scoring points, Gene Haas is looking to take his team even further in 2017.

"If we can do a little bit better because our business model in Formula One allows us to operate more efficiently, we might be able to move up a position or two,” he said in an interview with the Haas website.

2017 sees an introduction of regulations which will add a lot more downforce to the car, and if done right, teams may be able to get ahead of their rivals.

“I think it has pluses and minuses," he said when asked about the 2017 regulations. "On the plus side, we’re not trying to put the whole pit crew together. We don’t have to worry about getting trucks and other infrastructure. We have all that in place.

“The negative side is that there’s less time to do all these things again and there are a lot of rule changes, so you have to be prepared. On the other hand, we have stronger relationships with a lot of our suppliers, so that should make it easier.

“It’s kind of give and take. It’ll be just as challenging as it was last year, but I think with the knowledge we have, we should actually perform a little bit better this year.”

Fergal Walsh