Haas F1 driver Romain Grosjean is delighted to see such a tight, competitive battle in Formula 1's midfield in 2018.
"One race it’s the Renault that’s the fastest, the next one it’s a Toro Rosso, another race it’s the Haas or maybe the McLaren," he said.
"That makes it super exciting. We need to get everything super right – down to the last tenths of a second – to be qualifying in front of the others and race from there. It’s pretty exciting."
However that excitement is tempered by the knowledge that the midfield teams are even further behind the top three than ever.
"Obviously, the front is a different situation," he admitted. "There’s a nice battle at the front, then there’s quite a significant gap, then there’s the midfield battle."
Asked if he thought Haas could emerge as 'the best of the rest' behind Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull, Grosjean was enthusiastically positive.
“I’m hoping so. We’re working on that. If we do achieve that at the end of the season, it would be amazing."
Haas is currently in seventh place in the constructors standings, just one point behind Toro Rosso. But all those points have come from Grosjean's team mate Kevin Magnussen, with Grosjean yet to finish in the top ten.
"We haven’t had much luck yet," Grosjean acknowledged. "We’ve had three races where we were looking at points, and three times where we haven’t scored."
However he took strength from Magnussen's success to date as proof that the VF-18 offers a strong competitive package.
"I think the car is really good, and the team has done a good job," he said. "Knowing that we’ve got a good baseline and a good car is very exciting. I know it’s going to come our way at some point.
“It’s development of the car, bringing updates, and making sure we exploit the platform 100 per cent as much as we can," he continued.
"That’s really what we need. We’re competing against big teams, and they’re going to bring updates. We need to stay there as well.”
As for when his own fortunes are going to change, Grosjean felt there was no better time than the present.
"Hopefully, that’s going to be in Baku," he said. The street circuit race has certainly produced some unpredictable, crazy races in the past.
“Baku is definitely a different circuit from the rest," he agreed. "It’s a really exciting grand prix – a lot can happen. There are always good opportunities, so we’ll try to get them there.
"It’s going to be a good challenge. It’s not a race where we were very competitive last year, so it will be interesting to see how much progress we’ve made."
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