F1: Haas learned from China errors, Grosjean says

The Haas Formula 1 team made its Chinese Grand Prix problems worse with errant setup changes, reckons Romain Grosjean, but it has learned a lot from it.

After top-six finishes in its first two F1 races, Haas slumped at Shanghai and failed to score, with Grosjean its highest finisher in 14th.

Asked if Haas now understood the key areas that were wrong in China, Grosjean replied: "It was the way we reacted to problems, with all the disrupted sessions it was hard to catch up.

"The way we tried to catch up, and the direction we went, was actually not a good one and sometimes made the problems worse. If it happens again we can ask the questions in a different way and react differently."

Though Grosjean was vociferous in his criticism of the high tire pressures Pirelli mandated for China, he said Haas's own decisions had exacerbated that problem too.

"It was part of the problem, but we made it worse with our setup, with the way we ran the car," he said. "We should have reacted a different way – and we will do if it happens again."

He added that the amount of analysis done in response to the China disappointment meant it became "actually a very positive weekend for us."

Haas team principal Gunther Steiner said while the problems had been identified, he could not be certain a solution had been found that would work in Russia until the cars hit the track for Friday practice.

"We couldn't get the front tires to work. The guys have worked since China to understand that," he said. "It's a bit track-specific. But only reality will tell and that is tomorrow."

Haas brought a new front wing design to China, but it abandoned evaluating it as it lost track time with problems on Esteban Gutierrez's car in both Friday sessions. It will try the upgrade again in practice in Russia.

"It didn't work in China because we didn't spend enough time on it," Steiner said of the new wing. "In FP1 and FP2 we had a problem with Esteban so we decided, 'Let's not get too crazy, let's go back to what we know.]

"We're going to test it again on both cars tomorrow and do a back to back in FP1 to know where we are. We don't know yet how it works or if it works or how to get the best out of it. It's a work in progress."

Originally on Autosport.com