Return to pre-season testing venue not vital for Haas - Grosjean

Romain Grosjean says a return to Barcelona, the site of pre-season testing earlier this year, won't have much impact on Haas' performance next weekend.

The French driver will be looking to put behind his wrenching Baku blunder with a solid performance in Spain accompanied by a haul of points.

To achieve that target, a return to a familiar turf would seem helpful, with teams and drivers knowing the Circuit de Catalunya like the back of their hand given the thousands of miles of testing done at the familiar track.

But Grosjean sees the extensive knowledge as offering little advantage, even for a relatively young team such as Haas.

"It’s not as vital as it was in the first year," he says.

"Now we’ve got good data from everywhere, and the team is really working in a good direction.

"The engineering group is getting stronger, as well as the group of mechanics, so I don’t think it’s that important that we go back to Barcelona."

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The Circuit de Catalunya was repaved at the beginning of the year, which in turn has also changed its characteristics in terms of tyre wear. But Grosjean points to temperatures as an important factor.

"I did quite like the new tarmac at Barcelona. There was more grip than it had previously, and a faster lap time," he says.

"Now the question is going to be how it is with warmer weather. That’s something we’ll find out during the race weekend.

"The biggest difference in Barcelona is in turns one and two. We carry much more speed than before.

"Similarly, in turns seven and nine, there’s a massive difference. The last sector is a bit more fun, as well. We’ve got more rear downforce, therefore we can go a bit more on power."

Despite inconsistent results, the performance of Haas' VF-18 has remained strong within the mid-field, underlining the car's qualities on four distinctly different tracks.

There's no reason to believe things should be any different this week but upholding its performance level thereafter will still require hard work reckons Grosjean.

"I think we’ve got a really good baseline and, obviously, the challenge of the year is to keep the development going to make sure that we stay in the race."

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