Romain Grosjean says Haas F1 Team has shown ‘very good progress’ at the Austrian Grand Prix, with the Frenchman claiming seventh at the Red Bull Ring.
This was Grosjean’s first points-paying finish since Russia in early May, as the American outfit has been struggling with tyre management following its strong start to life in Formula One.
Haas had entered the European summer leg of the season hoping for higher temperatures to solve their tyre issue only to experience mixed weather conditions and heavy rain in Spielberg. But that did not prevent the F1 rookies from making noticeable headway, according to Grosjean
“Of course it was a bit cooler [but] the new tarmac worked pretty well, we kind of managed to get the tyre to work” he said. “I think on the softs were still missing something, but we’ve made some very good progress this weekend.
“We need to keep going on that because Silverstone is a very high energy circuit, so we should be fine on tyres and if the car behaves well in high speeds it will be fun.
“We’ve got the new Ferrari engine next week, which is a good step I believe so all of that together is pretty cool.”
Having jumped to fifth in the Constructors’ championship across the opening flyaway grands prix, Haas has slipped down to P8. However, Grosjean feel his team can move forward and upward again.
“I think now we are fighting with McLaren in the championship and it would be great to overtake them and finish seventh, we’re eighth at the moment we can finish seventh I think and that would be a brilliant result.”
The Frenchman adds that he would not mind climbing further back the order and having a sniff at Toro Rosso’s sixth place in the long run, especially with Haas set to deliver a major upgrade before the final stretch of the season.
“They’re faster than we are pace-wise but their drivers have been doing a few mistakes and they’ve had a few problems so I think we have a big update coming, later than I would like, maybe after summer break, but if it works like it's supposed to then we should pick up some good pace.”
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