Haas team boss Guenther Steiner has conceded defeat to Renault in their often testy fight for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.
The two outfits were separated by just eight points heading into the United States Grand Prix last month before two consecutive non-scores for the American squad compared to 22 points for Renault swung the battle in their favour.
Steiner has also been very critical of the French manufacturer, particularly over the decision to protest Romain Grosjean’s car at Monza which saw him disqualified from a sixth-place finish, something the Haas chief claimed Renault did out of desperation.
With the gap at 24 points between them, however, heading to Abu Dhabi, the Italian admits that is a gap they won’t likely overhaul.
“It’s too late now,” admitted Steiner in Brazil. “It is somehow [frustrating], but on the other side, don’t forget that we are only in our third year and it’s still quite a big achievement to beat other people.
“In theory we should have beaten Renault without some mistakes from us, without their protest.
“You know, some fights you win, some you lose, but in the end, for the whole team, it’s still a good result to finish fifth — which we should now unless something magical happens in Abu Dhabi.
“We can be happy with that,” he added.
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For Haas, 2018 marks comfortably their best year in Formula 1 albeit with 90 points on the board despite still showing some cracks which would be expected in only their third year on the grid.
“It’s always frustrating a little bit because you always think you can do better — but that’s racing. You always want to do better than you actually do,” Steiner continued.
“I think we had a very strong run into the mid-season break. After the mid-season break we didn’t have a few strong races, then we had the protest, Mexico was a very bad race… So I don’t think it was lost because of any of those reasons.
“I think if you say fourth place was lost in Australia more than anywhere else — 22 points, plus the points that Renault scored, we would be fourth now.
“But if and when doesn’t count. We are grown-ups; we can live with that, we can still be proud,” he concluded.