The Chinese Grand Prix quickly turned into a reality check for the Haas F1 Team with both its drivers finishing well down the order in Shanghai.
Following a remarkable debut with the rookie US squad in Australia and Bahrain, Romain Grosjean endured a difficult Sunday marked at the start by an on-track clash with Sauber's Marcus Ericsson and followed by a run in an obviously ill-handling car.
Still, the Frenchman took away some positives from the weekend, notably the fact that every race is a learning experience for Haas.
"It’s learning. Learning everything that went wrong, learning everything that we didn’t do right and learning everything that we could have done better," said Grosjean
"So yes it’s almost a kind of non-positive [race] from the facts but if you are able to bounce back and analyse everything then there is a lot of positives to be made for the next one."
While Grosjean was unhappy with his car's overall balance, the Frenchman, as a few of his rivals, also complained about the mandatory tyre pressures imposed by Pirelli in China, and which led to premature degradation.
"They explained to me that the load is high and they have to put high tyre pressures but it’s kind of none of my business. I would like to run proper tyre pressures.
"So it was very good that we had the discussions. They know that their tyre is not good enough but we know that there is no testing so it is very difficult for them. In the race I think it was quite hard for everyone, the degradation was quite big, so not ideal."
Grosjean and Haas now look to Russia for better prospects and further learning.
" It’s more like Bahrain in that it is not going to be so front-tyre limited. Hopefully it should be a better track for us and we get back to a good level of performance."
REPORT: Rosberg cruises home ahead of chaos in China
Chinese Grand Prix lap-by-lap as it happened
Eric Silbermann has breakfast with photographer Crispin Thruston
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