Haas to introduce small upgrade package in Singapore

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Haas will introduce a small upgrade package at the Singapore Grand Prix as it is still targeting Toro Rosso in the constructors' championship.

After a strong start to its debut season, Haas has scored just once in the last ten races courtesy of Romain Grosjean's seventh place in Austria. However, with Toro Rosso also slipping back in the pecking order recently, the gap between the two has stood at 17 points for the last three races.

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Haas was quick in the Italian Grand Prix but failed to score - with Grosjean finishing 11th - and team principal Guenther Steiner says new updates in Singapore will look to continue its recent form.

"I think it was track-related," Steiner said of the pace shown in Italy. "[Monza] and Spa we were pretty good, Spa was better. Also Hockenhem we were already a little bit ahead. We need to see if we can continue this trend in the next races.

"We have a small upgrade package for Singapore, which will carry on the whole season obviously, so that will be something to judge in Singapore. But Singapore is a bit of a gamble anyway so we want to see if we can get it to work properly and then be ready for the races afterwards. But we hope the trend continues."

Haas also had a new Ferrari power unit at its disposal in Monza. With Esteban Gutierrez qualifying in the top ten, Steiner says the upgrade provided a clear improvement for the team.

"Absolutely it was a step forward. How much is difficult to say because we don't have any direct comparison. But it was a step forward – without that we wouldn't have made it into Q3."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.