Romain Grosjean came into the weekend hoping that Haas had found a solution to its chronic braking issues. But the French driver admits that pretty much nothing is going right for him in Sochi.
“I’ve been very unhappy with the car since [Friday] morning," he said. "Something is just not working."
Haas tried changing brake component suppliers from Brembo to Carbone Industries on Friday in hopes that this might help. But the team opted to reverse that change for the rest of the race weekend.
"It was nothing in the brakes, it was just the car wasn’t doing anything I wanted," he said.
Grosjean ended up qualifying at the back of the grid on Saturday. However, he has been promoted one place to 19th as a result of a slew of engine penalties for McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne.
Meanwhile Grosjean's team mate Kevin Magnussen will start from 13th place. The Dane has also gained a position, in this case for a race penalty for Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz.
"Kevin has been pretty happy with his car and I haven’t," sighed Grosjean, who pointed out that the team's qualifying effort had once again been affected by an incident on track.
"Today we had the yellow flags on my last lap while I was trying to improve," he explained.
The flags were for Jolyon Palmer, whose Renault had gone into the wall in turn 4. There were further yellow flags for a spin by Pascal Wehrlein's Sauber in the final sector.
"We need a solution for those yellow flags. Three races now we’ve had at least one Haas out because we get a yellow flag on our last attempt," he pointed out. "That’s a bit too much."
Grosjean isn't expecting his form or fortune to be any better on race day.
"I think tomorrow will be very hard," he sighed.
GALLERY: All the pictures from Saturday in Sochi
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