F1: Grosjean buoyed by Haas sim outing

Romain Grosjean feels Formula 1 newcomer Haas has a strong base on which to develop its car after his first experience of the debut challenger in the simulator.

While Haas puts the finishing touches to the car at the home of chassis maker Dallara, and ahead of its maiden fire-up next week, Grosjean is warming up for his maiden track outing at the first test at Barcelona from Feb. 22 with sim work.

Grosjean's first impressions of the virtual car, at least, have been favorable, believing a platform is now in place for progression.

"The sensations were quite good, even if at first it was necessary to solve lots of small technical problems, such as the throttle response, energy recovery during braking, etc.," Grosjean told L'Equipe. "Once everything was sorted, it was possible to drive well.

"This allowed us to work on the primary settings of the car such as brakes, throttle response, differential, and how the different ride heights impact the aero and how that compares to the calculations in the wind tunnel."

Grosjean is aware what he has so far experienced in the simulator could be very different come his first official outing in the car.

"A simulator is always just a guide, but I think the car's baseline appears to be good," added the Frenchman. "We now know the simulator corresponds to the windtunnel, but the differences with what we find in reality are sometimes huge. At Lotus, for example, the car changed dramatically between track and simulator."

Originally on Autosport.com