Gunther Steiner says a "critical moment" could come amid his patience with struggling Haas driver Romain Grosjean.
Frenchman Grosjean has had a mainly poor season with the American team, and it didn't get better at Silverstone.
Haas had to change his chassis after a crash in Friday practice, then in the race he collided with his teammate Kevin Magnussen as well as Carlos Sainz in separate incidents.
"I would not call it failures," team boss Steiner said. "It's becoming frustration.
"Every time we hope that everything turns for him, but it happens again. We will certainly cope, but it's not easy.
"We need to score points, do the maximum in every race weekend. It's important for us to move forward rather than standing still," he added.
"I support Romain and that's my duty, because I care about the success of the team. How long will it go on? I don't know when the critical moment will come.
"It has not yet arrived, but at some point we must stop losing points. This is extremely important. In the first half of the season, we lost too many points due to our own mistakes -- it's unacceptable," Steiner said.
Replies (19)
Login to replyreg
Posts: 162
So Leclerk to Ferrari, Gosjean out, Kimi to Haas?
Possible maybe?
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
No way. Other way round maybe. Leclerc possibly at Haas.
juju_hound
Posts: 180
Isn't Romain's contract renewing in next two months?
Rindtchamp
Posts: 304
Get rid of the crash magnet and move Leclerc up to Haas.
talktohenry
Posts: 362
He seems very moody and not THAT happy to be in F1, yes I agree, put CL in the Haas and watch this boy blow them away, what he's doing in the Sauber is amazing, even given it's improved performance recently.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
We've said this about a few new ones by now, but Leclerc is the real deal. There is little doubt that he is champion material.
dr002
Posts: 141
I doubt that will happen...... With Sauber now branded Alfa Romeo, with the progress of the team in '18, and with designer Simone Resta having joined the team from Ferrari; it wouldn't surprise me if Sauber will be a stronger team than Haas in '19 and that Leclerc will remain within the Ferrari fold enabling a smoother transition to Ferrari if the need arises.
In fact, if Ricciardo does not get a drive with Merc or Ferrari, I reckon he should stick his foot in the door and contract with Ferrari for a drive alongside Leclerc at Sauber, instead of signing again with Red bull as a second driver to Verstappen......
Savio
Posts: 145
Grosjean out, Kubica in
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
Everyone loves a comeback story. But, Haas might not take that chance.
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
Instead of pairing Leclerc with Vettel, it would be very logical to move him to Haas. But, Ferrari might have seen enough maturity in him, to boot Kimi out.
f1ski
Posts: 726
leclrec to Haasa more likely move
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
IMO, Leclerc seem to have little left to learn. If he can push a Sauber this well, and generally with little consequence, there is no question that he is due for some kind of promotion. But Im not sure how pleased Sauber would be to lose such a good driver, especially if its just to Haas, one of their rivals.
Kean
Posts: 692
Agreed, I don't think Haas is a likely destination for Leclerc, he'll go to Ferrari or stay at Sauber. I don't really see Haas signing Giovinazzi either, or a rookie for that matter. I'm thinking maybe Perez, given SFI's financial troubles he might want to do a "side-step".
dr002
Posts: 141
I'm not so sure that Leclerc is outperforming the car or whether there has been a substantial improvement in the car. The team has certainly shown marked improvement in terms of their pit stop times.
Given Ericsson's performance last weekend - before he stuffed up - it is clear the Sauber /Alfa Romeo has incredible outright pace.
Leclerc needs to be paired with a substantially better driver than Ericsson before espousing his F1 credentials.....
Alonzo
Posts: 66
I think PEREZ would take the Haas drive, he's a very good driver, certainly better thank GRO, brings good sponsorship money (20M), and we are talking about an American team, so it makes sense, after 5 years at FI, and no better seats available, why not? besides Force Indias's arrow is pointing down....
Jutlandia
Posts: 191
Yeps. Time is running out for GRO.
I'm afraid that if he dont score the same amounts of points as MAG, it's over for him.
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
IMHO, if Mr.Steiner openly critisized GRO, team would have already made their mind.
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
Time for GRO to start looking for a seat in Formula E or WEC. The kid just doesn't handle pressure well.
blade
Posts: 341
I like LEC a lot, but I think everyone is getting ahead of themselves - would LEC have done better than RAI last weekend..? I doubt it....for me Ferrari are gambling by promoting too soon, Jenson Button said the same at race weekend, he's not quite ready for that step, two more seasons in a second tier team before the promotion.
GRO I was strongly defending about 4 races ago, I now think he's past his sell by date, he is a liability and his team cannot afford the lost points and knock-on repair costs he is bringing them.....they need all that money for development work (the bits they don't but direct from Ferrari that is !). I agree with the earlier opinion that he doesn't handle pressure that well/well enough - and that's not a great trait to have in F1. We could be seeing the last few races from him - I don't think he'll last the season of he has two more bad performances/crashes.