Few doubt that Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen have a very strong car at their disposal, the Best of the Rest behind the big three teams and fourth place in the championship a reality for the American team.
But in the wake of the British Grand Prix, when on the opening lap the two Haas cars collided and seriously compromised both drivers for the rest of the race.
A day earlier they annexed the fourth row of the grid in their best qualifying performance to date and were expecting a big haul of points in the race, instead they bagged only two.
Speaking to reporters at Hockenheim, team chief Guenther Steiner explained, “In Silverstone, we qualified again seventh and eighth, we were in a fantastic position to score points with two cars. We ended up scoring barely with one car.”
“What happened afterwards? I don’t want to explain that… Not a lot. We just came to a conclusion that this cannot happen again. We cannot throw away points at Turn 1 when we are not in danger of being overtaken after the start. That was the outcome.”
“We just need to not throw any more points away. It’s so difficult at the start to make rules of engagement. The only rule of engagement is don’t do anything stupid. Do nothing that will compromise the team. We need to work for the team and make as many points as possible going forward. We’ve lost way too many.”
With the VF18 the toast of the grid, Steiner hopes that his drivers, particularly Grosjean, start delivering the results and performances the team deserve on a more regular basis.
“What must happen? A weekend without drama. We just need to have a weekend without being unlucky. We don’t even need to be lucky. We just need to perform where we should perform and we should be in the points with both cars solidly.”
“Like we were in Austria – maybe not that high because that was a little bit overachieving. I’m aware of that,” added Steiner whose Haas team lies fifth in the constructors’ championship standings after ten rounds and trail Renault by 19 ahead of Sunday’s German Grand Prix.