Steiner: Our fault we did not finish fourth

This year the American team produced a handy car for their drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, but the Frenchman was wayward (and dangerous at times) until he got his act together later in the season while Magnussen was solid but not stellar.

After the Japanese Grand Prix, Haas trailed Renault by only six points in the standings but four races later, at the finale in Abu Dhabi, the gap was up to 39-points.

Refreshingly honest, Steiner admitted, “I think it was our own fault that we didn’t finish fourth, but it’s our own fault because it’s also part of the learning we are in as a team."

"You never have to forget that we are only now in our third season and to finish fifth is great. To finish first of the privateers I would call it, because the guys in front are all works teams except maybe Red Bull, but it works like a works team — Red Bull is not a private team, it’s a very well-funded and well-established team."

“For sure there is this feeling of ‘we could have been fourth’ but could and would doesn’t do anything for you, so I’ve decided to be happy about fifth.”

Asked if he had started the season knowing what he does now would it have helped the team?

To which he replied, “I would think so, but for me it’s important if you make a mistake once — I’m not saying it’s OK but the important thing is you don’t make the mistake a second time. That is when you call it learning."

"Like in the pit stops, we had this disaster in Australia, but we didn’t have one afterwards. We were very thorough, we were in a good place, we just needed to make sure that we stay in the good place."

"The pit stops after Australia, for sure they were slower than they should be but that was the right thing to do until we got our confidence back and our processes back. We acted rightly, and nobody was there just blaming somebody, we said: OK, we have to do better than this... and we did"

"This is just one of the things we got better at this year, there are a lot of other things that you don’t see from the outside but this is very visible. But there is a lot of stuff," added the Austrian.

Taking it on the chin is big of Steiner, but it cannot be denied that Grosjean and Magnussen collectively underdelivered for the team. The incident-prone Frenchman particularly expensive on the points front while the bent metal did his team no favours.

Both drivers will be obliged to raise respective games next season, while the American team hope to learn from the mistakes of 2018 as they head into their fourth season in the top flight.