Haas boss Guenther Steiner believes his team must aim for consistency in 2018, an area of particular weakness during the US outfit's second F1 season.
While Haas pretty much achieved its goals in 2017, the Austrian manager lamented the team's uneven performance which resulted in "two races of nothing, and then all of a sudden we came back into the window again."
The team concluded its campaign eight in the Constructors' standings, the same spot where it finished in 2016. But too many points were left on the table, according to Steiner.
"Our foundation was there but we still had a rollercoaster, I would say less the first part of the season because we scored points in a lot of events," explains Steiner.
"We scored points in more events this year than last, which means that we have improved on the up and down.
"But it wasn't good enough to consistently be in the points and you need to be consistently in the points to move up in the standings.
"The three or four events where we missed out because of failures cost us dearly."
Looking back, Steiner believes the team's early focus on its 2018 challenger likely impacted its results in 2017.
"With the developments, I think we expected more but then again, we were fully aware that we had changed over early to next year's car.
"With hindsight, would we do something different? Maybe we would develop a little bit longer with this year's car, but you cannot go back.
"It's something in between and there is no clear answer. We had to focus on next year's car because the last thing we want to do is to have a big drop in performance next year.
"So I am pretty confident that next year's car will be better, otherwise we have wouldn't have done that."
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