Steiner confident Haas will avoid repeat of '18 mistakes

Haas Formula 1 boss Gunther Steiner believes his team has learned from its past mistakes and is better-positioned heading into 2019. 

The American outfit sealed its best-ever result in F1 last season with fifth place in the constructors’ championship, more than tripling the points tally it achieved in its debut campaign in 2016. 

Haas finished 29 points adrift of fourth-placed Renault and was left to rue a number of mistakes that cost the team significant points across the year, most notably its double pitstop calamity at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix while running with both cars inside the top five. 

“There is not one we learned specifically,” Steiner said during a launch event for Haas’ 2019 livery in London on Thursday. 

“We know we need to get more consistent and we are working on that. The inconsistency comes partly because of, I don’t want to say inexperience because we have experienced people, but we are a new team and we make mistakes. 

“You always need to learn out of your mistakes and make it better. I think we learn a lot and we have highs and lows but we always try to do out best for the next race and this year. 

“What we learnt last year is not to repeat the mistakes and then we get better this year. We got better and I’m very confident in the whole team – we have a great bunch of people working for us, engineers, mechanics, drivers. 

“I think we are pretty strong for a small team and I think we can do well.” 

New title sponsor Rich Energy has set the bold target of beating Red Bull “both on and off the track” in the coming years, with Haas defending the high aims as it prepares to enter the new season which features a revised set of aerodynamic regulations that have been tipped to influence the pecking order. 

Asked about the feeling in the Haas camp compared to the same stage in 2018, Steiner replied: “It’s a very similar feeling. 

“We know what we have done. We know the progress we have made, with the new regulations, where we stand. 

“We know where we are, but we have no idea where the other ones are. 

“I’m pretty confident that we will be OK, but OK can mean a lot of things. I don’t think we will have a bad car, but I don’t know how good the other cars are.

“12 months ago if you had asked me that we end up with the fourth-best car, I would have never said that, and I would not say that this year, because I just don’t know. 

“But I’m confident that we have got again a solid car. I don’t see anything bad coming for us, and hopefully I’m right.”