Romain Grosjean believes ensuring the successful introduction of upgrades to the car during a season is the area Haas must improve on to move forward in 2018.
While the American team scored points in their second year on the grid last season, arguably they were less competitive dropping down the order and sitting in front of Sauber in the pecking order in the final races.
With the midfield battle only likely to get more intense, there is a risk Haas could slip further behind without addressing their key weakness as Sauber expect to make big gains, Williams also hopeful of progress and really only Toro Rosso potentially in difficulty with Honda.
“There are a few areas where we need to focus on and get better,” Grosjean admitted to Autosport.
“One is making sure that the updates when they are coming are working well and they have been validated before, so not losing three months of time to bring something that doesn’t bring what it was supposed to do.
“This is two years in a row where the trend is to go a bit down during the year.”
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Haas has usually been blighted by brake problems, changing supplier between Brembo and Carbon Industrie regularly but still failing to find a solution.
The Frenchman, who has particularly struggled, claims another key factor is hurting the team’s progress.
“We started twice with a very, very good platform and we have been struggling with the tyres,” he said.
“We are not up there with tyre usage and understanding. Behind the scenes there are a lot of things we can coordinate better between the factory in Maranello, the one in Dallara and the one in England to make things run smoother and more efficient.”
