Haas boss Guenther Steiner concedes the team were in a helpless position during the Belgian Grand Prix.
Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen ran well inside the top 10 after emerging from the melee at La Source on the opening lap.
But, as a train of cars developed, the Dane gradually dropped back lap-by-lap as midfield cars flew past on the Kemmel Straight with his teammate following not long after.
“Obviously, a disappointing result at the end to finish where we were, Romain just couldn’t get past [Daniel] Ricciardo at the right time because we’re lacking top speed,” Steiner explained.
“We got overtaken by everybody. We were stuck behind Ricciardo, who was going slow, and we could not defend from the people going past us, and we couldn’t attack.
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“Almost the only place to pass, at turn five [Les Combes], you need top speed coming from the straight, and that was our problem today.
“Otherwise, the car was performing, we still have work to do. I think we can get close to what we need to do, we just have to keep on working. Everybody did a good job and we just have to try to keep on fighting. That’s what we’ll do.”
In Magnussen’s case, he was left to rue a first stint which simply went from bad to worse.
“I actually made the wrong call to stay out a bit longer on that [soft] tyre, that was so bad because I felt it was hopeless, so we might as well just wait for a Safety Car or something like that,” he said.
“I felt that was my only chance to come back. Then when we eventually did pit for the C2 yellow tyre, the car just came alive and completely back to normal and felt very good again. It’s so unpredictable and you don’t know what to expect.”
Grosjean too was surprised by how much his car improved on the medium tyre, but simply didn’t have the power to use it.
“We obviously had too much drag and not enough top speed. It’s not a choice or an option we had just to get the tyres to work, but it’s so hard,” he said.
“I was happy with my driving style and the car, you’re constantly fighting, but it’s so hard to take having been in P6 to then go to P13. It’s a tough feeling not being able to do anything.”