Guenther Steiner says Haas is facing "a hard climb" this season, but the US outfit's team boss is still expecting "something good" to come out of its challenging campaign.
Haas heads into its transition season with a car that is little changed from last year's charger, save for a series of aero modifications warranted by the regulations.
The US outfit has also decided to focus its resources on its all-new and all-important 2022 car and will therefore forego a development program for its VF-21.
But Steiner isn't expecting a free-and-easy nine months, as Haas will have plenty of challenges to contend with starting with the on-track education of rookies Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.
"I think we’ve got a few things to keep us motivated through the year," says the Italian ahead of this week's season opening round in Bahrain.
"We’ve got two young drivers that we need to develop, and we will develop over the year. That will come with some excitement, I’m sure of that.
©Haas
"Then the light at the end of the tunnel is 2022 where we will be back at our full strength because we regrouped last year and we made a step back to make two forward.
"For sure, some things will be challenging – also personally to keep on pushing, but I think we can do this. In the end, it’s all in nine months, but it’s 23 races. We are prepared for it and we’ll get it done."
Teams are theoretically facing a normal schedule this season - albeit with a record number of races - and a return to many of the sport's regular tracks, something Steiner is looking forward to.
"To be honest, I didn’t like last year’s calendar, at least I didn’t like the reason why it came to be due to the pandemic," he says. "There was a little bit of excitement though visiting new places or going to places we hadn’t been in a long time.
"Now it appears to be more of a normal year, not completely though. Imola as the second race for example, normally that wouldn’t be there, but it came back last year.
"It’s good but hopefully the pandemic settles down or goes away completely soon and we go back to things being very normal. Normality, at the moment, is not being normal."
Asked what achievement would constitute a success for his team this season, Steiner reckons that putting a few points on the board would represent a "fantastic result".
"I would hope that our two drivers have learned as much as possible and maybe even more than that in order to get ready for next year," he said;
"If we can get a point or two at some stage – that would be a fantastic result. But we are realistic, and points will be hard to come by.
"As long as we learn, we improve, and can get back to where we were in the past – I’m happy. It’s going to be a hard climb this season, but we will get something good out of it, we always do."
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