Monaco compounds should help Haas uphold Barcelona form

Haas team boss Guenther Steiner believes the compounds Pirelli has selected for Monaco should allow the US outfit to uphold the form it showed in the recent Spanish Grand Prix.

Before Barcelona, Haas had suffered from chronic tyre issues, with both Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen struggling to keep their rubber in the optimal and tight operating window.

However, the specific characteristics of the Circuit de Catalunya went a long way towards alleviating Haas' tyre problems, which in turn helped its drivers achieve a double top-ten finish.

"The Barcelona track allows quite a lot of energy into the tyres, and therefore we could heat them up, which didn’t happen in the other three races", Stainer explained in the team's Monaco GP preview.

"We were pretty confident coming to Barcelona that it would work but, again, we needed to prove it, and we know now that at circuits like this it works."

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Next weekend in Monte-Carlo, Pirelli will supply the grid with its softest selection of compounds, and Steiner therefore feels confident in Haas ability to perform on the demanding street circuit.

"The biggest difference for Monte Carlo will be the choice of the tyre. We’re running the C4 and C5s from Pirelli – the softest types of tyres we can use," said Steiner.

"With those tyres, we hope we can get the temperature into them and have a good result. We have to try, and we’ll only find out on Thursday what is happening.

"Hopefully going forward, by using the softer type of tyres over the next few races, that will help as well, and we can get the heat into the tyre.

"Monte Carlo and Canada will not be easy for us, but we will try our best to get the tyres to work and get a good result."

And a good result next Sunday will start with a crucially productive performance in qualifying, an exercise which Haas has handled well in the majority of races so far this season.
"In Monaco, you always have to qualify well to get into the points," the Italian team boss reminded everyone.

"In qualifying, we’re normally very good. We’ve been in the top-10 with both cars in four races out of five. Hopefully, we can do the same in Monte Carlo.

"If we get in at the front of the field in qualifying, normally in the race you can keep the other people behind – even if the race pace isn’t as good. Qualifying is crucial, though."

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