Haas rues 'disappointing' race

Haas F1 team came away from Canada having failed to score any points for the third race in a row.

The new American team struggled with tyre management in the cold conditions in Montreal, with drivers Esteban Gutierrez and Romain Grosjean finishing 13th and 14th respectively.

More about Haas F1

Haas Faces Familiar Testing Gremlins in Barcelona

Jan 28

Oliver Bearman Reflects on "Metamorphosis" at Haas

Jan 20

Haas went into the race aiming for a one-stop strategy for both drivers, but were ready to change plan should they need to.

This turned out to be the case with both drivers having trouble with grip in the cool conditions.

"It was a little bit of a disappointing race for us," said team principal Guenther Steiner. "However, we finished with two cars, so that’s certainly a positive"

"Some races things just don’t go as smoothly as you’d hope they would. We struggled with tire management," he continued. " We had to come in and change them, and then we ended up changing them again. We also had a problem with the front wing on Romain’s car near the start."

Grosjean was in a position capable of fighting for the points before his front wing broke on lap 46 as a result of damage sustained early on in the race.

"We’re not far from the points. I was up to P11 or so, trying to fight hard and doing everything I could, and then the front wing went," said the Frenchman. "That third pit stop definitely cost us everything we had been working for. We need to look more deeply into that issue to get it sorted. There are plenty of other areas where we can improve but, generally, the more we do, the more we understand the car and the better things get. Flying to Canada and not scoring any points is difficult. I’m sure the next race will be another step, and if we learn more, the better we’ll get."

Gutierrez, who finished ahead of Grosjean for the second race in a row, has to deal with not feeling well, as well as struggling to get the most out of his tyres.

"It wasn’t an easy race. I was struggling a lot to get the tires to work and then at the end of every stint it was difficult to keep the temperature in them, and once you start losing that the car starts to slide and it’s like driving on ice," he said. "This weekend we knew it was going to be very tough with the cool weather, but now we need to analyze how we can compensate and try to put more emphasis into the tires to make them work to give us an easier race."

"I didn’t enjoy it too much as I’m not feeling very well," he added, "but the weekend is now over and I’m looking forward to Baku."