Haas F1 Team boss says French Grand Prix was 'our worst weekend'

Romain Grosjean finished last in the 20-car Formula 1 field in France.

“This was our worst weekend,” says Haas Formula 1 Team boss Guenther Steiner after the American team struggled in every session across French Grand Prix weekend before its two cars finished 17th and 20th.

Romain Grosjean, who finished 20th in the 20-car field, failed to make it through Q1 in qualifying on Saturday, with Kevin Magnussen not doing much better. In the race itself, the story found a way to get even worse as Grosjean became the only retirement and Magnussen finished 17th, ahead of only the Williams cars.

Haas F1 limped out of France ninth in the F1 constructors’ championship, again only ahead of scoreless Williams.

“In the four-year history, I think this was our worst weekend all in all,” Steiner said. “In the race, we still struggled. I don’t know why. What is bizarre to me is that a car that was good enough to qualify seventh and eighth in the first race and then sixth in Monte Carlo, all of a sudden we are second to last.

“Don’t ask me what it is, I don’t know. So don’t even ask me, please, because I couldn’t answer it. We need to find out, and it’s very disappointing to be honest, ending up in this situation. But not having an understanding of it is the worst of all. This was a lot worse than Montreal, because already on Friday and in qualifying we weren’t good. At least in Montreal in qualifying we got one car into Q3, but here we were happy to get one car out of Q1. So that was a lot worse.

“Then if you think in Monte Carlo, we qualified sixth. Then the race pace is difficult to say in Monte Carlo because everyone was going slow for obvious reasons, but the race pace was there. So it’s very bizarre, the whole thing.”

Rather than get angry about the situation, Steiner is trying to use the struggles to invoke a positive change, saying, “We never give up. In racing, the day you give up you stay where you are.”

“That’s what I told the guys. I said, ‘Guys, you need to work a lot more now than you did before.’ There’s no point waiting for something to come, you need to go back now and understand why we are where we are. That’s the only thing you can do.

“Once you know why you are where you are, then you can find solutions. If you don’t know that one, how can you work on solutions? Then you work on everything and then you make a new car.”

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