Haas looking to utilise pre-season testing data in Spain

F1 rookies Haas say using data from pre-season testing will be valuable to prepare next weekends’s Spanish Grand Prix, with the US outfit looking to extend its positive start to life in the sport.

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is the first venue on the calendar where Haas has previous track experience, as the team made history during this year’s winter running.

If ambitions and expectations remained modest back then, the American squad’s strong debut means it already has three points-scoring finishes to its name in four races.

Team principal Guenther Steiner admits that having pertinent data for the first time this year will be helpful, though track and weather conditions will not be similar to what they were a couple of months ago.

“It’s one of the things we look forward to because we can compare what we’ve got now with what we started off with,” he said. “We finally have something to compare ourselves to.

“On all the other tracks, we’ve got no data at all, and we’ll have no data at all until we come back next year. So, it’s quite nice to go to Barcelona.

“It looks to be a hot weekend, so that will be different from testing. The track, for sure, will be different.”

F1’s return to Europe usually coincides with teams bringing a lot of updates to their cars in a bid to either stay ahead of the competition or play catch up.

Newcomers Haas are well aware of the sport’s development pace and will have a couple of new parts introduced in Barcelona. But that does not mean they will be unleashing evolutions at all costs over the course of the season.

“It’s just about making developments to make the car go faster, and how you do that is everybody’s own secret.” Steiner added. “We’ve made a few changes to the car. We’ve got a new front wing that we tested for the first time in Russia, and we’ve got a new rear wing that we’ll race for the first time in Barcelona.

“We won’t have big changes on a set schedule. We’ll introduce new parts when we feel we’ve made enough gains. New parts from our development will trickle in every few races, just like every other team does.”

Haas currently occupies fifth position in the Constructors’ championships, 29 points behind Williams, and five ahead of Toro Rosso.

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