Haas' Kevin Magnussen says the strong performance of its current-spec car has made the team a bit "anxious" to see what it may achieve with its upcoming upgraded VF-22.
The US outfit's new-generation design has remained virtually unchanged since the start of the season, with Haas purposefully holding back on updates until convinced of a package's theoretical efficiency.
But next week's Hungarian Grand Prix should finally see a raft of changes implemented on Haas' contender.
While the team's results have ebbed and flowed this season, its recent run of strong qualifying performances and top-ten finishes have built up an expectation that a big step forward is in the works.
©Haas
"I mean, it’s very, very impressive how the car seems to be," said Magnussen who clocked in P8 in Friday's second practice at the Circuit Paul Ricard.
"The team is finding pace in the car, despite no upgrades – so I’m very happy about that.
"And of course, it’s going to be exciting to see when we do get upgrades how it is, but it’s almost like we’re a bit anxious about it. So far it’s been going well, we hope for more this weekend.
"We made a decent jump from FP1 to FP2 – it didn’t look so good in FP1 – but then we made some changes and found some pace.
"Hopefully that carries into tomorrow and we have a good FP3, going into qualifying."
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On the other side of the Haas garage, Mick Schumacher, who scored his first career points in F1 in Britain and in Austria, finished the day well down the order in 19th position.
The young German felt his car's handling had regressed a bit in FP2 compared to his opening practice session, a decline marked by a spin at the long double-right Le Beausset complex that destroyed his set of tyres.
©Haas
"Sometimes you want to try and go to the limit and that’s what I did and carrying a lot of speed into that corner is helpful in terms of lap time and in that sense maybe it was a bit too much," he admitted.
"It’s a bit unfortunate as that meant we were on the short side for tyres on the long run but on the other hand you’ve got to try.
"The car felt good this morning, a bit worse this afternoon, so we’ll be analyzing why and trying to figure out how we can make it better but I don’t see a reason why we can’t get it back into the window tomorrow."
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