Haas Formula 1 chief Günther Steiner feels fifth place in the constructors’ championship is out of reach for the team in 2017, instead setting his sights on recovering seventh place from Renault.
NASCAR team co-owner Gene Haas set up his eponymous F1 operation in 2016, which finished its debut season eighth in the teams’ standings.
Haas has already beaten its score from its debut season in 2017, and has been in the close-knit midfield pack including Williams, Toro Rosso and Renault all bidding to finish fifth.
Haas lost P7 in the standings to Renault two weeks ago in Singapore, and Steiner believes recovering this place should be the main target through the final six races of the season.
“I think fifth is a little bit ambitious. I think we cannot finish fifth but we try to finish seventh,” Steiner said.
“I think at this moment in time we would be happy with that. We stopped developing the 2017 car quite a while ago to concentrate on next year’s car.
“We have limited resources. We need to focus that we stay stable year-to-year, not just one year up and down because then you create a wave-effect and you never get a grip of what you’re doing. We try to do our best.
“We will bring a few more developments but they are small. The last one comes in Austin. We hopefully can score some points.
“I hope also that our worst circuits are behind us, like the slow speed, high downforce ones. Our car doesn’t like them.
“It’s tough in the midfield. We just need to try to do always a perfect job.”
