Haas boss Guenther Steiner expects the team to get back to its early-season form at the French Grand Prix this weekend.
Haas established itself as ‘best of the rest’ on raw pace in the opening rounds, but failed to capitalise and convert that performance into the points it deserved. The team has failed to finish in the top ten at the last two races.
Despite its cars finishing 12th and 13th in Canada the team was encouraged by the upgrade it took to the Montreal race.
Asked if the triple header of races, which starts at the Paul Ricard circuit this weekend, should suit the car better, Steiner said: “They should, in theory. Everybody points to that direction that our car is best on these kinds of tracks, like Barcelona, Austria and France. Let’s see what we can do.
“We are all very confident to getting back to a good form. In Canada, Romain [Grosjean] was very fast but, unfortunately, he had to start last, and that’s never good. We are all very confident we can have good results in the next three races.
“The data showed exactly what the upgrades were doing in Canada. We got the confirmation that the upgrades work. Romain was very complimentary about the upgrades. For sure, France and the coming races should show more of what the upgrades are actually capable of doing.”
Haas was in a nervy situation during the Montreal weekend due to a lack of spare parts. Romain Grosjean’s collision with a groundhog during Friday practice left the team forced them to move on to its only spare front wing for the rest of the weekend.
Although the team has better supplies this weekend Steiner admits it cannot afford any more accidents in Paul Ricard.
“We’re actually not in a bad place. We’re still tight, because with three races in three weeks, you just cannot catch up with producing parts should we have some damages. Luckily, we didn’t have any big damage in Canada, except the nose which was damaged by the groundhog.
“Otherwise, we got away pretty good. We should have more spares for France and, hopefully, we don’t have any accidents there or in Austria. That will bring us up to a normal quantity of spare parts after the stretch of three races.”