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Haas putting full focus on 2018 car

Published on 17 Jul 2017 12:57
6
By: Fergal Walsh

Haas F1 has confirmed that the team is putting its full focus on the 2018 car, the machine that will be the American outfits third entry in Formula 1. Haas debuted in F1 at the start of the 2016 season, and have since picked up 58 points in the constructor championship.

As of after the British Grand Prix, the team sit on 29 points - the same number they totalled in its debut season last year. Now that they have matched the tally, team principal Guenther Steiner feels it is the right time to stop developing the 2017 car, and instead focus on next year's challenger.

Romain Grosjean had a tough race at Silverstone after starting from P10. He ultimately finished P13, after an unscheduled pit-stop due to contact with a Sauber, damaging his right rear tyre: "Tough day in the office," he stated. "We didn’t have much pace today with either tyre.

"I got stuck in traffic initially, which killed the super soft. I pitted for the softs, and again, traffic all the way. We tried a gamble at the end putting new super softs on, hoping that something would happen at the front, but nothing did. We just need to understand why our race pace wasn’t as good as it was in qualifying and go from there."

Kevin Magnussen, meanwhile, also had an underwhelming race, but is adamant to take positives from the weekend: "It was always going to be difficult when you start on the reverse strategy on the harder tire. That first stint kind of kept me out of the points.

"The pace was good in the car, I just had to do a long stint on the tires and wait for the guys in front to pit and then put in a lot of good lap times. I came back a bit at the end, but it wasn’t enough. Whenever you’re fighting outside of the points, it’s never that interesting. Still, I’ll take the positives. We were quick and had good pace in the race."

Fergal Walsh

F1 News Romain Grosjean Kevin Magnussen Haas Sauber

Replies (6)

calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
Makes sense sort of, yet I feel that they can lose valuable points if they abandon this season so early.
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- Jul 17 2017 - 17:46
- f1fan0101
  
  Posts: 1,804
  They dont get money in the first 3 years anyway, so its a good move. If done right, they could spring up into P6 or even P5 next year
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  Jul 17 2017 - 20:07
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  No, but its a move that could benefit them financially in the long run. And Im a fan of building on things now to benefit from it later. I already think they have the capacity to jump into P6 if they play things right this year.
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  Jul 17 2017 - 22:13
RenaultFM1

Posts: 100
They do not get money the first year 2016 but from 2017 they do get. I think it is a shame they stop developing because a place up in the championship will give them more money. maybe make sense just my thoughts.
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- Jul 18 2017 - 10:36
Barron

Posts: 625
Can anyone honestly tell me what it is that Haas actually "makes" on his cars? I do not understand why the team can get full Constructor points when it seems (to me at least) that they are not actually constructors like the 9 other teams. They are doing a fair job and maybe they have provided a model for other teams to enter F1 on the cheap, but it's hardly fair to compare Haas with teams that build their cars under the rules...
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- Jul 18 2017 - 11:33
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  The difference between Haas and several other teams is that Haas doesnt really build or design the majority of their car and it's chassis themselves, and to be fair quite a few teams hire constructors to do the actual building for them anyway. Among the customer teams, only McLaren, Red Bull (at least used to) and Williams design stuff like their gearbox themselves, the rest are supplied by e.g Xtrac. And Haas do have some input on the design, and have to run some of the simulations and tests themselves.
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  Jul 19 2017 - 20:42