'Realistic' Haas expects to fight to exit Q1 at Monza

Haas team boss Guenther Steiner says the US outfit heads to Monza with the target of exiting Q1, a feat achieved only three times this season by one of its cars.

In Spain and in Belgium, both Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were eliminated in Q1, their pace weighed down by Haas' uncompetitive Ferrari-powered VF-20.

Unfortunately, the results of the pair's efforts on race day have been equally disappointing, with Magnussen securing in Hungary the team's only top-ten finish so far in 2020.

"Realistically, we’ll be fighting to get out of Q1," said Steiner. "That is the real expectation but that’s what we’ll be working towards – making it out of Q1.

"You need to have a target, but it needs to be realistic. There’s no point dreaming about getting into Q3. If we can get out of Q1, especially on high speed tracks like Spa and Monza, that’s good.

"We’ll fight hard but we know we’ve got one arm tied behind our back."

• Haas open to full driver line-up change for 2021

Steiner will be attentive this week to Ferrari's efforts to ensure its power unit demonstrates solid reliability this week following the issues encountered by Haas at Spa where the team was forced to write off its Friday after both its cars suffered an engine problem.

"I need to push our power unit supplier to give us solutions," said Steiner. "Losing running time on a Friday, that doesn’t help anybody."

"The clock is running, because this year we cannot do anything about the engine.

"I don’t know exactly where they are for next year. I know that they are working on it, because you can imagine I ask that question every day, every hour.

"I don’t have a definitive answer, and it’s difficult to be the spokesperson for something you’re not in control of.

"I just relay messages, they are working hard on it because they know it needs to be better. I think the only way to find it out will be when we go back on the track next year.”

Fortunately, despite the recent succession of setbacks, Haas' troops remain motivated.

"The first thing is to keep the team motivated – thank God they’re all still motivated to keep on going," said the Italian. "I really admire that from the guys."

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