Haas announces F1 pre-season testing schedule

Haas has confirmed its Formula One pre-season testing running order ahead of the two four-day sessions scheduled in Barcelona.

The US outfit will roll out its first ever F1 challenger in the pit lane of the Spanish Grand Prix venue on the morning of February 22, with Romain Grosjean slated for the entire opening day.

The Frenchman will then hand over the wheel to team-mate Esteban Gutierrez before the pair alternates testing duties over the remaining two days of action.

The setup will be slightly different for the second group session held on March 1-4. The Mexican will spend the first two days on track before Grosjean wraps up Haas’ maiden F1 testing programme.

“The first thing for the test is to get the car to run and to work well from there,” said the ex-Lotus ace. Hopefully, we can get a lot of mileage. This is a new team, so we need to get everyone to work together, all the engineers, mechanics and the drivers.

“We need to get as much data and knowledge as we can. It’s important to get the reliability sorted as early as possible because we don’t get much testing and we’re going straight to Melbourne.”

With Haas making its F1 debut this year, securing valuable track time during a shortened pre-season features high on the American outfit’s agenda, especially for the returning Gutierrez.

“We expect to run the car as many laps as possible,” the former Ferrari test driver commented. “This will be our priority, as we need to be sure to sort all the possible issues we may have in order to fix them on time. It will be very interesting to develop our car setup through the tests in preparation ahead of the first race.

“I am sure we will have plenty of work to do. At the same time, the most important thing will be to always stay together as a team in order to be very efficient with our progress.”

Haas F1 Team Driver Lineup for Barcelona Test No. 1 (Feb. 22-25)

Monday, Feb. 22: Grosjean
Tuesday, Feb. 23: Gutiérrez
Wednesday, Feb. 24: Grosjean
Thursday, Feb. 25: Gutiérrez

Haas F1 Team Driver Lineup for Barcelona Test No. 2 (March 1-4)

Tuesday, March 1: Gutiérrez
Wednesday, March 2: Gutiérrez
Thursday, March 3: Grosjean
Friday, March 4: Grosjean

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