Romain Grosjean's exclusive F1i column - Melbourne

Romain Grosjean will write for F1i throughout the season to bring you a drivers' perspective of life in a new F1 team

New season, new team, new web column! It’s all change for me in 2016 and I’m very excited to be able to share with you an exclusive insight into my first season with Haas F1 Team.

I hope you enjoy the journey as we set out on Formula One’s longest season to-date. It’s my aim to give you a fresh perspective on life in Formula One and competing for a brand new team and everything that brings with it.

It’s been quite impressive the level of attention we’ve received during pre-season.

It started with the launch of the car in Barcelona and then obviously driving the car out of the garage for the first time.  I’ve been doing a lot of interviews, mainly answering the question ‘Why Haas F1 Team?’

So to answer that question for you, it’s quite simple. First off, it’s a very interesting opportunity and, of course, a challenge.

I think the approach taken by the team has been a very intelligent way of coming into Formula One. Being part of a new team and especially an American team has been something truly unique.

I believe that longer term it will bring me closer to my dream of becoming World Champion one day. I’m very happy with my decision to come here, there are no regrets and there never will be. I don’t operate that way. I make a decision and stick with it.

I think we surprised a lot of people in the paddock just by being here and by being out on track a couple of weeks ago in Barcelona. The level of preparation and the infrastructure of the team has been much higher that I thought it might be which is good.

I knew Gene (Haas) and Guenther (Steiner) were going to go for the best equipment, the best people and that’s exactly what we have. It’s been a pleasant surprise.

There’s been a level of excitement around the team which has been very high since we had our filming day, our launch and then finally our first roll out of the garage on the opening day in Spain.

I didn’t sleep very well before our first test day in Barcelona. It’s been 30 years since there was an American-owned Formula One team so it was a big occasion for all of us.

I like Gene more and more the longer I spend in his company. Seeing his level of involvement with everything and his passion for cars and for racing is exciting to me.

It’s clear to see how his drive and ambition has made Haas Automation America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. I also love the fact he’s happy to tell people exactly what he’s thinking!

Pre-season testing was the expected mixture of all the things you have to go through in running a brand new car.  You can normally form an opinion of a car very quickly, usually in about three to four laps of driving it. You’ll know as a driver if it has a good baseline or if it’s going to be a long season!

So far I’ve always judged it well as to how the car’s going to fare and with the VF-16 my first impression in Spain was very positive. I was very happy with how the car performed immediately in testing.

Yes we had some small issues but we also had some pleasant surprises. It’s been very encouraging in general and a good test considering how much of a challenge it is to come here from scratch and go straight into just eight days of testing ahead of the season.

I’ve been working well with my team-mate, Esteban (Gutiérrez) - we get on very well together. We know that the key to go twice as fast for the team is to work together.  We’re both intelligent guys so we share as much as we can at this stage.

Obviously when we go racing, you want to beat your team-mate but in testing and during our first races together, the more we work together the better it will be for the development of the team and ourselves.

It’s always tricky to figure out how the season’s going to play out, things always change, even between testing and the first race, and then the first race to the start of the European season. I believe that we can be in the points early in the season and fight from there.

For now though I’m just happy to be in Melbourne and ready to get our weekend started. Who knows what the race will throw our way but we’ll take it all as valuable experience and go from there. Either way, it will be a tremendous experience to be driving for Haas F1 Team in its very first Grand Prix.

2016 Australian Grand Prix preview

2016 F1 season: Chris Medland's team-by-team preview

TECHNICAL: A closer look at the Haas VF-16

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