After almost five years with the team, Romain Grosjean admits “it’s a bit sad” to see Haas struggling at the back of the grid.
The Frenchman was the first big signing by the American squad before joining Formula 1 in 2016 and the team enjoyed strong early success, including finishing fifth in the Constructors’ standings in 2018.
Since then, however, it has been a gradual decline for Haas, and after he and teammate Kevin Magnussen qualified 18th and 19th in Bahrain, Grosjean, who is leaving at the end of the year, couldn’t hide his disappointment.
“I put a lot of effort into that project and it was going well, obviously, if we remember here the first year, we finished fifth ages ago,” he told RaceFans.
“So, yes, it’s a bit sad for everyone because they deserve more. The way they operate the car and the way they work and so on, I think they deserve more. But it’s what we have, there is no miracle possible.”
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Haas boss Guenther Steiner agreed with Grosjean’s sentiment.
“We know why we are where we are at the moment, so we just try to make the best out of it,” he said. “You never know what can happen. Obviously, we have the slowest car here this weekend and we have to live with it.
“Sometimes you have to deal with what you are given and that is what we will do and try to make the best out of it.
“We’ve had good times and life is not always having just good times. Sometimes you have to go through bad times to appreciate the good times even more.”
But after seeing the results on Saturday, and based on the issues for Ferrari-powered cars on the straights this season, the Haas boss was pessimistic looking forward to next weekend’s second race, this time on Bahrain’s high-speed ‘Outer Circuit’
“It’s not that I’m looking forward to next week, to be honest,” said Steiner. “If you think this is bad, wait for next week.”