Romain Grosjean admits Haas F1 Team’s strong start to life in Formula One is “beyond expectations but we’ll take it”, with the Frenchman out to add more points to his tally at next weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Grosjean has scored in three of the first four races of the season, and while the 30-year-old benefitted from incidents in Australia and Russia, the US team’s successes should not be belittled. Looking back at his pre-season goals, Grosjean admits these have been more than fulfilled.
“I don’t like to set myself an objective, in terms of position,” he said. “If I thought about where we could be, what we can do, it’s definitely better than anyone was expecting, and certainly myself.
“China was a good grand prix to bring us back down to earth and help us understand a few things. Russia was good, as well. We worked hard to get P8 at the end. We’re beyond expectations, but we’ll take it.
“Everything has been a great achievement, and we should be able to keep that form.”
It is hard to believe that Haas officially joined F1 just over two months ago when it rolled out its VF-16 in the pit lane of Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya ahead of pre-season testing.
As the American outfit returns to the home of the Spanish Grand Prix, Grosjean sits seventh in the Drivers’ standings with 22 points, while Haas occupies fifth position in the Constructors’ championship.
“For everyone, it’s been a nice journey,” the ex-Lotus driver added. “We’re only four races into the season but what we have done, the way we have been growing up, has been impressive.
“Everyone is now finding their marks. There are still a few things we can improve and a few things we can certainly do better, but we are having a good run of races.
“We have a good group of people and the drivers are working well with the engineers. As every team, we have ups and downs but, generally, I think from the first test we were a racing team and now, four races into the season, we have shown we’re a good contender for scoring points often.”
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