While there might be nine races to go, Haas team boss Guenther Steiner has revealed all development on the 2018 car has already come to an end.
The American squad admitted they made a mistake last season in switching focus to this year too soon, however, the reward has been good with the car the fastest of the midfield before the summer break.
But being quite a small operation compared to most around them and also operating on a tighter budget too, however, Steiner explained that the risk of potentially dropping back is outweighed by getting a head start on the VF-19.
“We started the 2019 car a few weeks ago and there’s no point in developing the 2018 car any longer because if you do continue development, by the time you manufacture the parts, it’s near the end of the season,” he was quoted by F1i.com.
“The gains are too small to use the parts in only two or three races. We do have a few more parts coming, but that’s it for the development of the 2018 car.”
As for why Haas are confident of avoiding a repeat of 12 months ago when a lack of development left them near the back of the grid by Abu Dhabi…
“We’ve learned to produce upgrades, bring them to the car, and have them working,” he claimed. “This is a step that we have achieved in 2018 that we did not have in 2017.”
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Next year does see a more significant change in regulations with bigger but simpler wings and a shift in the positioning of the bargeboards, but meeting those alterations haven’t had a major impact on planning.
“Maybe we switched a few sessions before because if we were only making an evolution of the 2018 car for next year, with the same regulations, you could use whatever you learned this year for next year’s car.,” Steiner explained.
“By changing regulations you need to start a little more fresh. So, you have to focus a little bit before and you cannot use what you developed for the 2018 car on the 2019 car.”
