Günther Steiner is in good spirits after the two strong Haas performances at Silverstone and Spielberg and is even secretly dreaming of a podium
After the second best result in the team’s history, Haas team boss Günther Steiner is already dreaming of the big time and someday the first podium for his racing team. In Spielberg, Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen had finished sixth and eighth and, together with the sprint, scored a total of 14 points for the team.
“I would say it was an almost perfect weekend,” Steiner says. “Everything was executed in the best possible way, there were no mistakes and we didn’t do anything wrong,” he praises, but also knows, “In racing there is always room for improvement until you win everything. But nobody always wins.”
Haas is still a long way from victories, but Steiner hopes that the racing team can improve with steps so that one day – “hopefully soon” – a podium finish can be achieved. They were not far from that in 2019 at Spielberg with fourth place from Romain Grosjean and fifth from Magnussen.
However, after a couple of fruitless years, the South Tyrolean is also happy to take sixth and eighth places. “I’m happy for the team because I told them they have to believe in themselves. We have done it before and we will do it again,” says Steiner.
However, he also warns that they must not go into the upcoming tasks with excessive euphoria. “We don’t think it will just go on like this now,” he says. “A lot of people have been working hard. We will do our best and hopefully get a few more points. “
Points again in France?
This weekend’s French Grand Prix is expected to be the last without the first update for the VF-22 to follow a week later in Hungary. Haas has had little luck at Le Castellet so far, with only one top-10 finish for the team, but it was a decent one with Magnussen finishing sixth in 2018.
“We’re on a streak here boys!”
Unbridled joy from Mick as he crossed the line P6 today HaasF1 AustrianGP pic. twitter.com/lHFVuI7rLy
– Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) July 10, 2022
“After the two weekends in Silverstone and Austria, the motivation in the team is very high,” Steiner emphasises. “Our car is pretty good everywhere. Our weaknesses are high-speed tracks like Jeddah and Baku and the upcoming ones at Spa and Monza. “
“I’m confident that we can score points again if we implement everything well,” he says. “I don’t know how many, but the reliability has been there in the last two races. Hopefully it will stay that way in the coming races before the summer break. “
“Anything above sixth place will be difficult “
With the 14 points at Spielberg, Haas have moved past AlphaTauri in the WRC and are already 16 points clear of Aston Martin. They are currently in seventh place in the championship, which they would like to keep. “That would be nice,” says Steiner, who also fancies sixth place. That is currently held by Alfa Romeo, who are 17 points ahead of Haas.
“Anything above sixth place will be very difficult because the other teams are very good and are already a bit too far ahead,” he says. By then we’re talking about 47 points, with Alpine and McLaren tied on points ahead of Haas.
Haas hasn’t even scored that many points in the first half of the season (34), and Steiner knows the team can’t score points with both cars at every race like they did at Silverstone and Spielberg.
“We just have to work hard, then maybe we can finish sixth,” he states as a goal. “But first and foremost we have to make sure we stay seventh. “
