Romain Grosjean admitted that he was struggling with the handling of his VF17 in Friday practice at the Marina Bay Street Circuit ahead of this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.
The Haas driver was around four seconds off the pace of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo in both sessions. He was the first driver to scrape the wall in FP2 and subsequently also went for a spin in turn 7.
"It was a tough day," Grosjean admitted. "We’ve been struggling all day to get the best out of it.
"I think we’ve made some progress on the rear end of the car, but we still need to get the front end to work.
"Not much feeling with the front end. I’m struggling to get the best out of it.
"That’s something we’ve been struggling with at street circuits like Monaco," he pointed out. "But we eventually found it in qualifying there.
"I think tonight we’re going to try a few things for tomorrow and hopefully get the right answer," he added.
Grosjean's team mate Kevin Magnussen sat out FP1 in favour of the team's development driver Antonio Giovinazzi. In the evening he was half a second faster than Grosjean, but little happier. He also hit the wall late in the session, damaging the wheel rims on his car.
“Obviously, the pace wasn’t great," Magnussen sighed. "We need to work on that and see if we can find some more pace. Otherwise, it’s going to be difficult for us this weekend.
"I think we have some stuff to work with, it’s just whether it will be enough," he continued. "But we’ll see. It was good fun to drive here, but our main priority is to be competitive."
"Other than a bit of damage where Kevin hit a wheel in FP2, we got through the sessions with both cars intact," said Haas team principal Guenther Steiner, who admitted that it had not been "an easy day today."
"We’re still trying to find a setup that the drivers like while getting the tires into the window where they work here," Steiner explained. "I think we’ve got enough data to look at. Hopefully, we can find something for tomorrow.”
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