Haas team boss Guenther Steiner has admitted that the team were surprised to be fighting for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
The team only entered Formula 1 in 2016, and improved massively, under the stewardship of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, this year.
It could have been even better for the American outfit, who lost a 22-point haul in the season opener in Australia, but Steiner believes they surprised everyone.
“I think we surprised a lot of people,” Steiner admitted.
“I mean, did we surprise ourselves? A little bit I would say.
“We were aiming for sixth, we were fighting for fourth and we finished fifth. So yes, it’s a bit of a surprise.
“But then again, like always, [with] everybody competitive, if you get this close to fourth you would like to have fourth. But then at least we will try again next year.”
Steiner believes that for the team to deliver its full potential, his staff need more experience in challenging and fighting near the head of the grid.
“It’s nice to have a car up there. And I don’t think that our team is not good enough. It’s just that it’s experience you need to make it, and normally it takes time,” he added.
“But for sure we didn’t get out always everything from this car. But even if the car would have been lower, maybe we wouldn’t have got out something if we would have been [with more experience].
“We are growing, you know, we are making experience, we are learning. And this is a game of learning, because otherwise it would be worth nothing somebody being here 20 or 30 years.
“We are not the biggest team but I think for what we have got, the amount of people, I think we’ve got a very good bunch of people in my opinion.”
With the budget cap coming in for the 2021 season, Steiner insisted that it would be a mistake for the team to expand too quickly.
“I believe that it’s better to grow slowly. Just throwing money and people, that normally doesn’t work,” the Austrian added.
“A lot of people tried that one and it didn’t work. We [also] don’t want to start with doing everything ourselves because a lot of clever people tried and it didn’t work. So again it just takes time.
“The only thing you can not buy in life is time. But everything else you can buy, So I think we need to keep on growing.
“Do we need to grow? Yes, absolutely. But I don’t want to go at the speed of 200-300 people a year, because at the moment we have got 160.
“And we don’t know what the regulation for 2021 is. What’s the point of trying to do something, which then you don’t do again?”
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