Mick Schumacher and his new team Haas admit expectations are very low going into the 2021 Formula 1 season.
After enjoying their best-ever finish of fifth in 2018, the American outfit has been on a downward slide, only managing ninth in the Constructors' standings the past two years.
Last year, due to the financial impact of Covid-19, Haas chose not to upgrade their car at all and looking ahead to this year, team boss Guenther Steiner doesn't expect much progress.
“We are working hard on it,” he claimed. “It’s difficult to judge as we started developing maybe three or four months ago.
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"It’s not that the other people developed a lot, it is just we did not have wide-open development because we had to manage budgets and resources.
“We did very well when we had to manage resources and budgets, so I hope we can get back to those times.
“But next year for sure it will be difficult because we are not developing from a car which is very competitive. The reality is we just find out when we go out there testing in Barcelona, and then in Australia when we do the first qualifying.
“We try to do our best, but I don’t want to make any promises on how great it will be because I don’t think it will be that great. But as always, you try to do your best and you hope that you can make up some of what you lost before.”
That will no doubt disappoint those hoping to see Schumacher fighting in the upper midfield at least. Instead, the German is focusing more on qualifying.
“I would say next year is going to be about managing our expectations and really being open-minded on every aspect of what could be happening next year,” Schumacher said.
“For me, Q2 is our goal. It is hard to reach but if we reach it then that is like a win for us.
“So I will take that to not only motivate ourselves but also show to the outside world that we always keep fighting and we always will give our best.”
