Grosjean determined to exploit Haas potential

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It's been a rough first half of the 2018 world championship for Romain Grosjean, who has finished in the points only once in ten races.

However the French driver is confident of the potential of the Haas VF-18 and is determined to get more out of it in the remaining races, beginning with the German Grand Prix this weekend that marks the midway point of the season.

“The potential of the team is big," he insisted. "That’s what I’ve been saying for a long time.

"This year, we’ve shown that we’re capable of being fast at most of the tracks, and it’s been really promising. It’s good news and it’s been a good effort from everyone on the team.

"Barcelona, Paul Ricard, Red Bull Ring, Silverstone – they’re all places where we’ve been really strong at different types of circuits," he pointed out. “We’ve been good everywhere, except Monaco, to be fair.

"The latest upgrade we had is a really good step forward. It makes the car better in low speed, as well. I think high speed we’ve got a really good balance. It’s a really consistent car with good downforce.

"In low speed, we know we can improve a little bit more. We know where, but the car is not bad either. I think we could actually be alright in Germany and in Hungary.

"The team has made a lot of progress. The potential has been there since day one. We’re ready for more.”

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Haas is currently in fifth place in the constructors standings behind Renault. That puts them ahead of the likes of Force India, McLaren and Toro Rosso.

"After the first day in the car, I knew that was possible," Grosjean said of their current ranking. “[But] we can do even better. We can still improve.

"If you look at the standings, I don’t have many points at the moment,: he admitted. "But we will work even harder to make sure we don’t have any more issues. I think we can aim for the fourth position."

Grosjean is certainly aiming to get into the points at Hockenheim on Sunday.

"I became European F3 champion at Hockenheim back in 2007, so naturally I like the place," he said, while admitting that he actually preferred the sister Nurburgring which shares hosting duties for the race.

"It’s always great to visit somewhere with good memories," he added. "I won at the circuit in Formula 3, and in Formula Renault 1.6. I won there in the GP2 Series until a post-race penalty dropped me to second.

"Every year is different, though. It doesn’t matter what happened in the past. The important thing is to make it count now.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.