Despite rumours of an announcement at Monza, Haas still have yet to decide who will race for them in 2020.
The American outfit is one of a few teams actively weighing up their option for next season after incidents between Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean plus a lack of results this year.
Many reports continue to indicate that Nico Hulkenberg, whose exit from Renault was announced last week, is the main driver Haas are looking at, but team boss Guenther Steiner admits it is a very difficult call.
“What is better: stay with what you know, or go for something new? That is the bigger decision to be made at the moment and that takes a little bit of time,” he was quoted by GPFans.
“If there would be a clear decision it would be easy to make and we would agree immediately. We are not sure what is the best.
“We try to find and make the best decision for the team because we want to make it better but it might not go in the right direction.”
Also Read:
- Haas talks up Magnussen/Hulkenberg line-up, Grosjean still relaxed over future
- Haas will consider recent incidents when deciding 2020 line-up
- Renault explain Ocon deal, claim Hulkenberg rejected 2020 deal
While there is the uncertainty hanging over his future, however, Haas have promised Romain Grosjean there will be no knee-jerk decision.
“We are not going to judge Romain on a race-by-race [basis]. For sure he needs a result, but he knows what helps and what doesn’t help,” Steiner explained.
“It’s more like ‘where do we want to go with the team in the future?’ That’s the bigger decision.
“We know Romain pretty well, we know his strengths, and if he has one bad weekend it doesn’t mean the next one isn’t fantastic.
“We know that one but we need to now make the decision for the team where we want to go next.”
As for Hulkenberg, Haas is not his only option with a seat at Alfa Romeo considered an alternative while Red Bull is a long-shot.
The German though remains calm.
“Nothing concrete yet, but there are talks going on,” he revealed.
“It’ll be a while yet, I guess the situation is what it is now but it needs to be the right deal for all. There’s no urgency or hurry to sign anything, but there’s options out there but nothing to talk about yet.”
