Haas result boosts morale after stressful winter

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says Romain Grosjean's sixth place in the Australian Grand Prix is a welcome boost after a tiring few months.

Grosjean managed to bring Haas points in its first ever race with an impressive drive which was made possible by the team holding out for a red flag period before switching to medium tyres on a one-stop strategy. Despite a disjointed pre-season which saw Haas complete the lowest mileage of any team, the Frenchman was then able to hold off Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas.

Asked if the result was a big boost for the team following all the planning to be ready for its debut, Steiner replied: "Absolutely, everybody did a great job.

"I mean, the last two months I wouldn’t like to have been any of these guys. They worked day and night, but continuously, it wasn’t like they did it once. No, we built the car, we went testing, day and night, then we went to the factory to rebuild the cars, then we came [to Australia] and we had some gremlins and some problems.

"Then it rained, we didn’t do any testing and I think our drivers maybe each did seven timed laps before going in to the race, it’s quite amazing. But it happens, so we take it.”

And Steiner also believes Haas got a bit of luck with the way it was able to make its tyre change without the pressure of a live pit stop.

“I think they performed good. We didn’t do a pit stop, maybe that was lucky! I don’t know! At least it gives us a little bit more time to practice before we do a real one. We did quite a few practice ones but never a heated one or a timed one, so maybe that was lucky that we didn’t have to do one. But again, the team worked well together and they all did their job.”