0
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says the upcoming two races won't be simple for the American squad, as it looks to put its tyre issues behind it.
Haas has been suffering from tyre graining during the opening segment of the 2019 season.
Colapinto Shaken by Bearman Crash: "The Speed Difference Is What Makes It Truly Dangerous"
Verstappen Furious After Bearman Crash and Demands Rule Change for Safety
However, in Barcelona, it made a step forward in ending its struggles as Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean bagged the team's first double top ten of the season.
MORE: Steiner: Relationship with Grosjean is 'pretty strong'
The team introduced a number of car upgrades which Haas is satisfied worked and provided it with the pace necessary to take home the 'best of the rest' spot at the Spanish Grand Prix.
“We had the possibility to do the back-to-back with the two cars, between what we now call the old spec and the new spec," Steiner said.
"It’s always good to know what you’re doing and if it works, so if you can do a back-to-back it’s always the best way to do it. You can prove things.
"Data’s data obviously, and the wind tunnel’s the wind tunnel, but the car is the car. We utilized this to our advantage and tested both specs of car.
"We came out clearly that the upgrade kit is better, so that’s why we then put it on Kevin’s car for Saturday and Sunday.”
Barcelona layout helped tyre problems
Steiner added that the nature of the circuit layout in Barcelona aided its push to fix its problems with tyre graining.
The Italian is hopeful that Haas will be able to put the graining issues behind it going forward, and is expecting the softer tyres, which will be used in Monaco and Canada, to be of benefit.
“The biggest difference is the layout of the racetrack," Steiner said. "The Barcelona track allows quite a lot of energy into the tires, and therefore we could heat them up, which didn’t happen in the other three races.
"We were pretty confident coming to Barcelona that it would work but, again, we needed to prove it, and we know now that at circuits like this it works.
"Hopefully going forward, by using the softer type of tires over the next few races, that will help as well, and we can get the heat into the tire.
"Monte Carlo and Canada will not be easy for us, but we will try our best to get the tires to work and get a good result.”
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
I. Hadjar
A. Antonelli
C. Leclerc
1 members have this team as their favourite
Replies (0)
Login to reply