Romain Grosjean described his Spanish Grand Prix as “hell” after Haas suffered a miserable weekend in Barcelona.
The American outfit is historically competitive in Catalonia and looked on course to challenge in the upper midfield after the Frenchman was fifth fastest in second practice.
An engine failure later in that session though proved a turning point as all that potential disappeared in qualifying and the race, resulting in an eventual 16th place finish.
“This is hell. Honestly, that car was unstoppable,” Grosjean was quoted by L’Equipe post-race. “One of the worst races of my career. It was horrible.
“The car was nowhere from the first few laps. I don’t know what happened between Friday and Saturday, and then Sunday, but it wasn’t the same F1 car.
“On Friday, the car was top in the long runs, but also in the qualifying simulations. And then… it was maybe the worst car I’ve ever driven in my life.”
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Haas boss Guenther Steiner refused to respond to Grosjean’s claims directly, but did admit answers were needed as to what went wrong.
“I will not comment on the words spoken every day about best car, worst car,” he said.
“What matters is to take a step back and analyse why we went from strong on Friday to struggling on Sunday. We lost two seconds per lap which is very strange.
“I’m used to the strong words from my drivers. Of course, some of them don’t help us but I’ll survive.”