Steiner claims Haas' 2017 points don't tell full picture
- Published on 19 Nov 2017 14:33
-
- By: Fergal Walsh
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner believes that the points that the American team has accumulated in 2017 don't paint the full picture of its sophomore season. Haas currently sit eighth in the standings on 47 points with just one race left on the calendar.
In 2016, when Haas compete in F1 for the first time, it secured 29 points by the end of the season. With a battle for sixth in the standings coming down to the wire between Haas, Renault and Toro Rosso, Steiner doesn't think points show a full picture of Haas' 2017 story.
"I think points tell something, but not everything," he said. "I wouldn’t have said we’ve gotten better if we had less points. But looking in from the outside, I think we’ve made progress at all levels. We wanted to better our position, but at this moment in time we are equal, so sure we will try to get better in Abu Dhabi. I was hoping to better our end-of-season position by one spot."
Steiner also revealed that the intensity in its first and second season is exactly the same, as the team had to produce two brand new cars: "It was very similar," he said. "The first year we had to build a new car completely, and the team, but we had a little bit more time.
"This year, again, we had to do a completely new car – we already had the team built up – but we still had to optimise it. The intensity was almost the same, but when I think about our 2018 car, the intensity is the same again. We’ve been working together now for over a year, over two years with some people."
Fergal Walsh
1
Replies (9)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
They werent bad at the start of the season, but their form slumped pretty quickly. They need to fix their brakes and reliability for next season. If the braking issue isnt fixed by changing supplier (and that seems to be the case), then HAAS or their chassis supplier is doing something wrong. But I think they have the potential of challenging for decent points next year aswell, if they do their homework.
Bhurt
Posts: 320
The brakes issue is a Grosjean issue.
f1ski
Posts: 726
+1 on the Grosjean comment
Savio
Posts: 145
Haas has a problem. This problem is named - drivers
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
I agree on Grosjean, but from another perspective: I think the problem is real, only K-Mag is just that much better at handling it. As for the driver duo... Well, none of us really think they are anything exceptional, but they certainly seemed to perform better at the start of the season.
RenaultFM1
Posts: 100
SAVIO you obviously not know much about Formula 1 or are you here just for spit out shit always? yes you could maybe put HAM or ALO in the car but I sure they would not improve that much. But try use a little logic sense.
Barron
Posts: 625
Issue here I believe is threefold with drivers being last on the list.(I actually think they’d do quite well with decent machinery). Problem 1 is Haas business model. He has little day-to-day control over the supply of his parts and the chassis is designed made by a company with a less than stellar record in F1. Problem 2 is geographical. Trying to run a team from the USA with the bulk of your parts coming from Italy is a recipe for poor performance. Whilst Haas has an enviable company infrastructure it’s not F1 centric. Haas himself said “How hard could it be?” Well, he’s finding out. Problem 3 drivers. If Haas “built” a better car and solved problems 1&2 I think this pairing would do quite well. The bright spot on the horizon might be the F1 budget cap. Haas would do extremely well if that came in as he is perhaps the only team who runs that tight a ship and therefore has the experience.. What he really needs to do, is become a ‘proper’ constructor within the spirit of the rules of F1.
websurfer
Posts: 52
Totally agree BARRON.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
By any standard HAAS is exceeding expectations for a team in its second year in F1. Performance-wise you could say they underachieved, but only if you compare them against seasoned teams like Toro Rosso, Renault. But even then, they are only a coupe of points behind, and they did beat McLaren. That being said, I think HAAS image has not improve as much as it should have because of (1) chronic break problems, which seem to be more chassis related and (2) inconsistent performance and (3) their drivers which seem to be the most disliked and unpopular in F1. More importantly, I think their poor driving cost the team at least a dozen points.