F1: Haas to work overnight after fuel issue

The Haas team is to work overnight in a bid to cure the fuel system issue that blighted the first day of the second Formula 1 test for Esteban Gutierrez.

Gutierrez encountered the problem during the morning session, completing only 23 laps, confining him to the garage for the remainder of the day. Recognizing the issue was not an instant fix, Haas used the time in the afternoon to run through various FIA tests it would face during the course of a grand prix weekend, with the VF-16 passing with flying colors.

"It's the first time it [the fuel system problem] has cropped up, therefore we need a bit of time to react to it and we'll be out again tomorrow," said team principal Gunther Steiner. "We're working on it now, and it will be worked on overnight.

"Because the FIA is here we used the afternoon to simulate a race weekend, for the FIA to check the car, for the flexing and that. We analyzed the problem and told them we could fix it overnight with the night shift, but we need to do some practicing of a whole race weekend with the guys, like the FIA inspections, so we did those in the afternoon.

"We did some T-tray deflections and all that stuff, with the FIA helping us, so all the guys know the processes, and now they're starting to fix the car."

With just three days of testing remaining, Steiner recognizes time is running out for Haas to be happy with its checklist ahead of its grand prix debut in Australia in just under three weeks' time.

"I hope we can run the next few days otherwise frustration sets in pretty quick," added Steiner. "We didn't run today, so we haven't ticked certain boxes. We hope we can make it up tomorrow.

"We still have to conduct race-distance runs. We want to do more to see if we can do a race distance without a problem. That's the biggest one. Then if we've time we can try setup changes just to make the car go quicker."

With Gutierrez missing out on a considerable amount of running, the Mexican is hoping to split a day with teammate Romain Grosjean later in the week. For now, Steiner confirmed Gutierrez will run on Wedesday, with Grosjean taking over on Thursday and Friday.

"I think it's open for a discussion, let's see how that goes," said Gutierrez. "Obviously I don't want to interrupt the program so much, because when you split sometimes it can be a bit compromising. But it's something I will discuss and see what is best for the whole program."

Originally on Autosport.com