F1: Haas can entice recruits after strong debut

Team principal Guenther Steiner has revealed Haas has been able to entice new recruits to join the team as a result of its impressive debut season.

Haas became the first new team to enter Formula 1 since 2010 and duly scored points in each of its opening two races courtesy of Romain Grosjean. Helped by a close technical partnership with Ferrari, Haas was able to pick up points on another three occasions throughout the year and was in Q3 as late as the Brazilian Grand Prix, where Grosjean qualified in seventh place.

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The team ended 2016 in eighth place in the constructors' championship, beating Renault, Sauber and Manor. After such an encouraging first season in F1, Steiner says Haas has benefitted from being able to deliver on its promise of running in the midfield from the first round.

"I think all in all we had quite a good year," Steiner told RACER. "We did what we said we were going to do which is worth a lot in this sport. Should we have performed better? Always. But in the end who would have thought we would finish eighth in the championship a year ago? Nobody would have believed it, and I would have signed up for it, by the way! So I am pretty happy with what we did.

"We just gained experience and experience is everything. Now we just need to use the experience we gained this year and take it into next year to make sure we are even better, that's the aim."

While Haas already had experienced personnel in place from the start of its debut season, Steiner says the performance level it has displayed over the past 12 months has allowed it recruit from other teams.

"Absolutely, but it helped us already, otherwise we wouldn't have the quality of people that we have got. We go for quality and not quantity, that's why we are still a small team and we will continue this trend. So I hope we can attract more good people. We have got some coming already which we attracted some months ago so we are stronger next year. We hope we do better than this year.

"They are not big names but they are people who have experience of Formula 1, which is important."

Grosjean will remain with Haas in 2017, but will be joined by former McLaren and Renault driver Kevin Magnussen, who replaces Esteban Gutierrez on a multi-year deal.

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