Steiner: Haas wrote off 2019 'quite a while ago'

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner admits Haas threw in the towel on its 2019 campaign "quite a while ago".

However, he affirmed that the team still tried its hardest to end the season on a high note following a difficult year for the American squad.

The team struggled with its race-pace throughout the early races in the year, and ran different specifications of cars at particular weekends to help understand the problems.

MORE: Haas' success in short time frame encouraging Magnussen for 2020

In the second half of the season, Haas has scored just one top ten finish and now has its sights firmly set on 2020, when it hopes to bounce back stronger.

"We did that quite a while ago, but we needed to support what we are doing now to understand what we are going to do for 2020," Steiner replied when asked if Haas has written off the season. 

"I think we knew quite a while ago that this year would be just getting to the end. We're always trying to do our best, which you always have to do, but it will be great [to end the season]."

'F1 should stop changing regulations every two years'

Ahead of Haas in the championship, there has been a close midfield battle between a number of teams, which stemmed from a tight contest in 2018.

For the 2019 season, new front wings were introduced along with several other aerodynamic changes, all aimed at improving the on-track action at races.

In 2017, the car design recieved a major overhaul, which saw higher levels of downforce produced, which in turn created more dirty air, creating difficulties for following cars.

While Steiner admits that he is not worried about a potentially close fight in the midfield next year due to the stability in the regulations, he says it's important for F1 to stop switching up the rules every couple of years. 

"There is a chance of that happening," Steiner said of a close midfield fight. "Do I worry about it? No. We are used to it. It's one of the things, it's the ups and downs of life. 

"Hopefully at some stage, we agree that we shouldn't be changing the rules every two years, dramatically. We should have left the front wings like they were in 2018.

"Then you would have next year, a very competitive field that's close together with a little bit better tyre and heat stability. I think in theory we could have had a good season, but we didn't."