Guenther Steiner says Haas were surprised that it couldn’t find performance with the updates they brought as they start afresh in F1 2024.
It wasn’t the season that Haas hoped for in F1 2023 which started with much optimism but it didn’t end well despite one big update they brought. They came into the year with an experienced line-up and a car which looked promising to a certain extent.
One one lap pace, it looked solid against their competitors but as the season progressed, the race pace started to show up. The tyre degradation was extreme and they started to drop down the order, so much so that they lined-up a big update in Austin.
But to their disappointment, it seemingly didn’t solve the problem. It was surprising for Haas boss Steiner that the update didn’t turn out as expected. Explaining his side, he stated that the team didn’t wished to bring updates for the sake of it.
They were not confident with the numbers and so they decided to put their resources on a bigger bodywork update in Austin, which didn’t work as well. “Absolutely, we were little surprised and the problem was we didn’t find performance in the development,” said Steiner to media.
“It wasn’t that we didn’t want to or couldn’t bring upgrades, we didn’t bring upgrades because we knew that the car won’t be any faster, there’s no point. I mean, it was a surprise that we didn’t make any progress with the development in the wind tunnel, on that side. We used the resources to bring upgrade in Austin which was complete revamp of the car, of the bodywork, we used the money there because that was a big one.
“And with the concept how we started, we just couldn’t find any performance anymore, that’s why we changed concept,” summed up Steiner, who stated that Nico Hulkenberg deciding to stick with old spec and Kevin Magnussen taking the new one is not something to regret about. It is their decision and the team didn’t argue about it.
But for 2024, they are not too concerned because they are starting afresh. “I mean there were no regrets or anything, the drivers they both took…that is what one likes better and the other one, likes the other one better,” said Steiner. “No, not really, [we are not concerned] because next year is complete new car anyway and we start from zero.
“You just start afresh, they both were very outspoken, I like this and the other one like this, so in the end you don’t argue anymore about it but next year you start from zero, you need to develop the car that the car is faster and the driver like it better,” summed up Steiner.
Here’s Guenther Steiner on CBS programme
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