Haas believes in VF-23: 'Then we can fight with Alpine'

With eight points, Haas sit in seventh place in the constructors' championship standings. It is the step towards midfield that had been hoped for with Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg.

With already the seventh Grand Prix of the season approaching, Guenther Steiner takes stock. "I think considering this is the second season after really just concentrating on survival, we are doing well," said the Italian in a press release from his Haas F1 team. "I think the good thing is baseline car performance is pretty good. That’s actually even slightly better than we anticipated, so that’s positive but what’s lacking is the consistency across tracks and also race pace. That’s what we’re working on, but I think we’re working across departments better, so it’s very positive. So far, I think it’s slightly better than I expected but because the potential is there, we can see it, we just need to improve the race performance."

Haas satisfied

Steiner has seen strong competition in the midfield. "If we put everything together and we send the car with the correct set-up, at the correct time, it’s operationally good and then the driver performs, we can be up there fighting with Alpine."

But, says the US-based Steiner: "With race pace, we’re not quite there yet but that’s the bit we’re really focusing on. If you look at Miami, we finished P10 with Kevin which was a bit disappointing, but nobody retired. Apart from the big teams – Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin – we were only beaten by Pierre Gasly, and with a little bit of improvement I feel we could’ve been there with him until the end. All departments internally are working better together, we’re where we should be I think in our second year of revival."