Romain Grosjean was pleased with his Haas car after recovering from a spin on the pit-lane exit during British Grand Prix practice.
The Frenchman caused red faces all round as he lost his front wing against the barrier while speeding out of the pits for his first lap of the weekend.
“Cold tyres and then I switched off the pit limiter, I was surprised by the lack of grip, the car just went around,” he explained later in the paddock.
He would spin again at the exit of Brooklands on his second out-lap causing further embarrassment, putting the blame on Silverstone’s new track surface.
“On my first lap out, the grip was outstanding through Turns Three and Four and I was expecting the same at Turn Six but it wasn’t quite there,” he told FormulaSpy.
“I spun and when I came back in, we changed the differential a little and it was much better then.”
Also Read:
A hydraulics issue led to more time being lost in the afternoon, when able to run smoothly, Grosjean praised the decision by Haas to switch back to the car used in Australia for this weekend after a tough stretch of races.
“The feeling on the car is good, the way it was at the start of the season which I was really happy with but obviously, there’s performance missing as it’s an old package,” he conceded.
“There are limitations which we knew we’d have. Some are with the wind, which was pretty strong today, and we’re paying a little bit of a price there.
“For the team, it’s very interesting to look at the data and try to understand the feeling of the car from what me and Kevin say.
“I think the performance is not quite what we might expect, but the feeling is very good and we need to translate the feeling into the new package and then into performance.”