Haas' running on Thursday was a disappointing affair, the US outfit's drivers struggling for grip around Monaco's twisty layout.
Both Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen failed to get their VF-18 up to speed, concluding their day of free practice in the lower tier of the field.
"We haven’t been able to find a sweet spot on the car and we haven’t found the grip we wanted to have for around here," complained Grosjean.
"Obviously, we’re not very happy with the positions. Hopefully, we’re going to get the tires to work better, get the grip out of them, and then the performance should rise quite nicely.
"Right now, we’re not looking like we’d make it to Q3, but it’s about finding the grip on the track."
Team boss Guenther Steiner also underlined the VF-18's tyre issues, especially in the early part of a lap around the Principality.
"When we go over the start/finish line the tyres are not in the window," said Steiner.
"In sector two I think we are 10th-fastest, roughly. At sector three we are also not so bad.
"So it’s mainly sector one I think we are going in a little bit too cold on the tyres. And then you lose your confidence, as you say, turn one if you brake and the front doesn’t grip you’re in trouble."
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Kevin Magnussen, the man who has delivered to Haas all of its 19 championship points this season, is confident the team can put in a strong performance despite its problematic start to the weekend.
"Obviously, we’re not where we wanted to be today, in terms of pace, and also in terms of not getting much running in FP1," said the Dane.
"I’m hoping for a better day on Saturday. We’ve got lots of time to work on the car with having Friday off, at least from driving, and we can think a lot more about the setup.
"Hopefully, we’ll improve the situation for qualifying.
"The whole field is very tight, so even though it looks bad position-wise, we don’t have to find that much time to go quite a bit forward."
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