Romain Grosjean believes battling with Red Bull can’t be ruled at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
The Frenchman’s Haas team enjoyed a return to form in Barcelona on Friday, comfortably leading the midfield and splitting the two RB15’s in the case of Grosjean.
And rather than simply settle for targeting ‘best of the rest’, Romain sees no reason not to consider a top six finish.
“I’m feeling optimistic,” he told Formula1.com. “I feel like we’ve got a good chance to qualify both cars in the top 10 and even maybe play with Red Bull.
“I think we’re in the mix with them. So we’ll dream big, and let’s see where we go. Saying that, [Red Bull] always seem to find something in qualifying, but I think we’ve got more coming as well.
“Let’s see. Tomorrow could be a good day.”
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Not only is a number of upgrades responsible for Haas’ improvement back to where they started the year, but also the circuit and the conditions in Spain are much better suited to their car.
“From the first timed lap, the car was back to where I left it in winter testing,” Grosjean stated. “It just worked, it was easy to drive, you could enjoy it, you knew what was coming.
“It’s been very, very different from the last few races.
“So that’s very positive, very happy with that. It shows that really, we’ve got a very, very strong car but it is far too gentle on tyres, so here it’s fine because it’s warm and there’s a lot of energy.”