Balance and reliability problems again at Haas

Haas was excited to join Barcelona since it’s the only track where the team already has data from their car, thanks to winter testing. However, the return to the Catalan circuit is not going as well as expected since both drivers could do no better than 17th and 18th in the first session.

If Romain Grosjean was able to progress in the hierarchy (13th) in the afternoon, he was still not satisfied with his settings. The comparison with the cool temperatures of this winter could thus be useful: « It hasn’t been an easy day. I struggled with the slightly higher temperatures to make everything work. It helps to have data from this winter’s tests and to see what we did differently, which direction we went with the settings. We might go back on a few subjects because we’re not very happy with the car. It was good to have some running, but I think we realized that the last setup change we made wasn’t as good as we had hoped. »

For Esteban Gutierrez, the day was even more complicated. Thus, he also failed to have good feelings during the first session: « It was not easy in FP1, which I did not expect because the conditions were good. The weather was nice and there wasn’t much wind. I expected to have a clear feeling from the tires, but unfortunately, that was not the case with the mediums. »

Things did not improve in FP2 as he was only able to complete nine laps of the circuit before his car got stuck in the pits: « FP2 was a bit more complicated due to the wind, which has a big impact on the car. Then, we had an electronic problem, which prevented us from going back on track. »