Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has vowed that the team will come back at Renault and reclaim seventh place in the championship. Last time out in Singapore, the American team scored just two points, while Jolyon Palmer secured a sixth-place finish for Renault, which put them ahead of Haas in the constructor's standings.
Haas is competing in its second year in Formula 1 and has already passed its impressive 2016 points tally. At pre-season testing earlier this year, team owner Gene Haas set the target on improving its 2016 finishing position of eighth. With the squad now lying in eighth place having been overtaking by Renault, Steiner is keen to move back to seventh in the championship.
"To go away with two points, for sure we worked hard for it, but we didn’t expect it,” said Steiner. "All in all, we got a bit of a good end, but on the other side, we’re now eighth in the championship and not seventh. Coming in [to Singapore] we knew these things could happen, but we will fight hard to get back to seventh.”
Speaking about the race in Singapore, Steiner said: "Our drivers, our whole team, did a good job. There was nothing wrong with our strategy. We always reacted very well. Both drivers kept the cars safe. Kevin [Magnussen] would’ve brought his home but he had an electronics issue. We’ll investigate that and why we had to shut it down. Romain [Grosjean] did a good job and came home ninth with two points. We keep on going."
Fergal Walsh
Replies (7)
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Posts: 162
I am reminded of the Everley Brothers hit - Dream Dream Dream!
RenaultFM1
Posts: 100
When Haas already stopped developed before summer break how to keep up with Renault? Haas let the drivers down and fans too is all I have to say.
mbmwe36
Posts: 533
For some reason, HAAS never seems to be able to put it all together. There is always something letting the team down. Whether it's sending the drivers out too late for qualifying, sending them out in traffic, the brakes, weird tyre strategy, the brakes etc. There is always SOMETHING. It's not that they're making excuses, because they rarely so. I would just like to see them put it all together for a few races.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Yeah, but I'd probably put those issues down to inexperience. Im sure they'll get down to it sooner or later, given enough resources and effort.
F1racefan97
Posts: 113
Not a chance Haas will finish ahead of the Renault! If anything they should be looking in their mirrors at McLaren rather than looking ahead
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
They probably already are, McLaren is only 20 points behind them and has overall looked stronger. Mind, with Renault's lack of reliability, those 5 points between Haas and Renault can quickly become nill.
Barron
Posts: 625
Haas is beginning to discover the limitations of being a part customer team and not a full constructor. Whereas his competition can identify a part for improvement and immediately facilitate its design & construction in-house Haas has to communicate with a manufacturing base hundreds if not thousands of miles away and get in a commercial queue. For this reason I would assume his upgrades come in 'batches' He's got a current spec Ferrari engine so it's the chassis holding him back and that's also many miles away in the hands of 'others'. I think Haas has done fantastically well compared with previous newcomers. His business model of part customer car seems to have worked despite the doubtful legality of the arrangement. It's also quite possible this is as far as Haas can get with his self imposed limitations, so what's he going to do about it? Soldier on or quit?