Haas team principal expects his drivers to fight for points with new car

Haas team boss Gunther Steiner expats his drivers to compete in the top 10 with their new 2022 F1 challenger. The German team principal expressed his satisfaction at the job done by technical director Simone Resta and his team and is optimistic for the season ahead.

Outlining the expectations for his drivers, Steiner said:

“The expectation is just to be able to fight for points and fight with the other drivers who are in Formula 1. With their rookie year, we were always very open that the expectations were not high but that they had the opportunity to learn and to establish themselves in Formula 1. Now this year, we have to prove that we are on the right track with the drivers.”

Both Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin were in their rookie year in 2021 which made their learning curve tougher with an underwhelming car. The team stopped the development on the VF21 at the beginning of the year and had focused on restructuring their R&D department and the VF22 car. With all resources diverted to the 2022 season, their expectations from last season were understandably low.

Explaining his expectations from the newly launched VF22, Steiner said:

“I’m cautiously optimistic because I see how Simone and his group developed the car over the last year, how hard they worked on it. And the results from the wind tunnel, the improvements they do each session... that makes me cautiously optimistic.”

With a restructured design office based in Maranello led by Technical Director Simone Resta, Haas have been able to work in close quarters with their engine supplier Ferrari. The VF22 is the first product of its Italian-based design department, which has poached several Ferrari personnel to the cause.

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Haas Team principal is satisfied with the efforts from his new design team

Gunther Steiner stressed on being cautious before making any predictions at the launch of the VF22, as he believes they don’t have a reference point to what other teams have designed. With Haas becoming the first team to kickstart the 2022 F1 car launch season, it remains to be seen what other teams have in store for the upcoming season.

Justifying his cautious optimism, Steiner said:

“To say ‘we will be in the midfield’ – I don’t know, I obviously have faith we will be there but I don’t know what the other ones are doing, so we have to wait a little bit longer. But I am pretty happy [with] what happened last year because we had two tough years. But what kept me going was actually what the people did in ’21 back in the design office and in the aero group.”

The Banbury-based team’s chief draws satisfaction from the work that has gone in the development of the VF22 over the last year. However, it won’t be a surprise if Haas has a race-winning car ready for the first race in Bahrain.