Gutierrez 'impressed' despite own misfortune

Esteban Gutierrez has been "impressed" by the start to the season Haas has made even though he himself has had a frustrating first two races.

Haas has grabbed the headlines with a sixth place in Australia followed by fifth in Bahrain, with Romain Grosjean scoring both results. Gutierrez, on the other hand, was involved in a collision with Fernando Alonso in the first race and then retired with a brake disc problem in Bahrain. Despite his own frustrations, Gutierrez has been encouraged by Grosjean's results.

Asked if he has been surprised by how well Haas has been performing operationally in its first two races, Gutierrez replied: "Yes I am impressed.

"The team is doing a fantastic job. Everybody is motivated, these kinds of results is helping the team. The team morale after such a big effort … I think the guys spent two months away from home building up the cars and it was really, really tough. To get these kind of results, for them is a big reward for us as a team.

“For me personally I haven’t got them yet but it will come and it will come consistently because I have a good car. I was very happy with the car, I was enjoying driving it a lot, having good fights.”

And Gutierrez agrees with Grosjean that there is more potential in the car than has so far been shown.

“Well I think there’s still a bit more, maybe a few tenths. We can extract a bit more because we are too green. We have a lot of things to improve, pit stops as well. The guys did a good job [in Bahrain] with the pit stops, I think one of the pit stops was not great but for a new team that’s a really good step.”