Romain Grosjean: Cooling issues led to brake failures

Romain Grosjean believes Haas paid the price for insufficient brake cooling at last Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix.

Both Haas drivers failed to see the chequered flag at the Red Bull Ring as first Kevin Magnussen and then Grosjean were forced to retire with brake issues.

Magnussen went out with a spin that involved a near miss with the Renault of Esteban Ocon before his VF-20 ending up in a run-off area bringing out the Safety Car.

Haas’ troubles continued with Grosjean later retiring.

The Frenchman spun twice before a third moment at Turn 4 put him out of the grand prix on lap 49.

Grosjean says the problem lies with Haas’ cooling for its brakes.

“It’s very different from what we encountered in the past – [last weekend] with brake temperature issues,” he told Autosport.

“Yes, it was temperature-related, and obviously our cooling hasn’t been efficient enough – especially into traffic.

“So, yes we are looking at different options to get the brakes under control – it’s never great starting a race knowing that you need to lift and coast to save the brakes by lap two.

“So, yeah – I think the boys have been looking at as many options as they could [for a fix this weekend].

“We have one more emergency step, I believe, in the pocket. But I guess tomorrow morning and afternoon [in practice] will be focused a lot on getting those temps under control.”

This is not the first time that Haas’ brakes have caused complications for the drivers.

The team had several issues throughout the 2017 and 2018 seasons, forcing Haas into changing brake suppliers in a bid to resolve the problem.

This year, though, the problem lies with the cooling system, not the brake material.

Grosjean is confident Haas will find a solution, hopefully before Friday’s first practice for round two, the Styrian Grand Prix.

“[Confidence starts] with the first lap in free practice one – where we had a brake failure [last weekend],” said the 34-year-old.

“So, seven-eight months out of racing it was a bit of a non-good start.

“But the boys have been working as hard as they can and I’ve got confidence that at least for qualy and short runs it will be absolutely under control – long runs we need to look at every option that we have.

“If you know that the first lap everything is under control, and it’s all braking as it should, then you can just build from there.”

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