Haas F1 still believe they can compete with Renault and Toro Rosso for seventh in the Constructors’ Championship despite ending their development of the VF17 for the remainder of this season.
The American team dropped to eighth after the last race in Singapore, as Jolyon Palmer’s sixth place was enough to see Renault move ahead, while Carlos Sainz’s fourth position saw them pull away further in sixth in the standings.
Both Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen had looked set for points in the high-attrition race around Marina Bay before a late engine issue forced Magnussen to retire, but team principal Guenther Steiner wasn’t too put as expectations had been low going into the weekend.
“Singapore was one of the worst tracks for us, including Hungary,” he claimed. “We knew we’d be weak on those tracks, and we were. We got away with two points, so we got away better than we expected to. Hopefully, at the other tracks, we won’t be this far behind the midfield.”
Given the pace Renault has shown in recent races and now a young talent in Pierre Gasly teaming up with Carlos Sainz at the junior Red Bull team for at least the next two races, opportunities to claw back the lost points seem limited, particularly as Haas has fallen back in overall pace in recent races, Steiner isn’t giving up, however.
“In the midfield, anything and everything can happen. It’s up and down all the time. Regardless, we’ll work hard to achieve seventh,” he said.
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The decision to end work on the 2017 car will only hamper Haas’ chances further with Renault particularly expected to continue improving, but the Italian-born team boss explained the reason for the team’s approach.
“We decided a long time ago that we would start focusing full-time on the 2018 car in August, and we started partially on our 2018 car in March,” he revealed.
“You have to plan it well because it’s so complex, but everyone else is working on their 2018 car as well. If you were to develop something at this point for the current car and you put it into production, when it comes out it would be too late. If you develop something now, you won’t get it to the racetrack for this year.
“We still want to achieve seventh, or the best result we can. We haven’t given up.”
