Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says the team is confident it can get on top of the electronics issues that plagued Esteban Gutierrez’ progress in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Mexican could only complete 36 laps across the two Friday sessions, while team-mate Romain Grosjean managed nearly the double with 65 despite the disruption of the rain in FP2. Steiner explains that the woes affecting Gutierrez’s VF-16 are not new to Haas.
“We had an issue with Esteban’s car with the electronics, so we had to bring him in, we thought we’d fixed it but it came back in FP2 at the end, so we need to fix it now,” the team boss said.
“We will change quite a lot of electronics stuff this evening. It will be fine.
“We’ve had the problem before and we think we know where it is, so we need to change a lot of electronic parts.
“We think we know what it is, we have an action plan, so let’s get it fixed.”
Offering his perspective on the problems, Gutierrez, who has already had his fair share of bad luck this year, sounded slightly resigned though he remained confident his team would turn things around in time for Saturday.
“It was just electrical issues,” the 24-year-old said.
“I’m not the expert, I don’t know the details, but it’s something the team is already on top of.
“I don’t know what to say, it’s not in my hands, it’s not my responsibility.
“It was not so nice today because we had this problem in practice 1, practice 2 as well, the weather, a bit of a boring day, not driving a lot.
“But we got some laps, which was the most important, and we have some data, so we will focus to get everything ready for tomorrow.
“As a team we are trying our best, and I’m confident they will fix it.”
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