By alley - Aug 15, 2017, 2:40 PM ET

Haas focusing on 2018 car - Steiner

Haas will not introduce any major upgrades to its car after the summer break, as it is already focusing on its 2018 chassis, according to Guenther Steiner.

Having impressed in its debut season but with limited development to its first F1 car, Haas planned a bigger development program for 2017 as new aerodynamic regulations opened up greater opportunities to make clear improvements. However, while the team will receive a Ferrari power unit update at the end of August, team principal Steiner says the majority of the design team's focus is on next season.

"We will have an engine update either in Spa or Monza, I don't know exactly when we put the last engine in," Steiner said. "For sure for Monza we have got low downforce and then another front wing. I don't know the exact date we will introduce it but no really big updates anymore. More work on the 2018 car already."

With the Halo confirmed for introduction in 2018, Steiner says Haas' challenge is changing its car design, because the team had been working on a Shield concept – including a screen – up until last month.

"There will be changes, but the aero guys already started last year to work a little bit on it for the potential of it coming in for this year. The Halo is the same for everybody; we need to tweak the car in areas. I just guess, I don't know what will be the results of it. But we will get there.

"If you ask [the team], if we had gone with the Shield, we would be world champions next year, but now we will only finish second... No joking apart I don't think it's a big influence. For sure it's not nice to develop something, it's not like we stopped in December the development – we started with the 2018 car but we started with the suspensions and all that stuff.

"To just put the Shield on and now we take it off... We are not happy but I don't see it as... We did some work that we wasted but a lot of other people did as well. The people [who] haven't started it, they are behind anyway so it's give and take. We could sit here and guess how much it distracted it. We would never know how much it is."