Ferrari approached Haas about driver line-up

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has revealed Ferrari asked his team to change its driver line-up to incorporate one of its young drivers.

Ferrari is keen for both Charles Leclerc and Antonio Giovinazzi to step up to Formula 1 race seats next year, with Leclerc having won the F2 championship in dominant fashion and Giovinazzi impressing in two early-season outings for Sauber. While Leclerc is expected to become a Sauber driver in 2018, Steiner says Haas was approached about replacing one of Romain Grosjean or Kevin Magnussen despite both being under contract.

"We work very closely with Ferrari together on things but they respect our decisions," Steiner told RACER. "We are very open with them about what we are doing because that's the only way the partnership works – there is no playing games.

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"We know we have got these two drivers and sometimes you need to look after the long term, because next year is short term. Sure, they asked us if we can do something, and we said no. It's fine.

"We make our plans and try to plan as well as possible. When we signed these drivers we had to make the plans together. We need to be consistent.

"I wouldn't say we would confuse ourselves without help from outside but everything is new for us and while consistency sometimes goes against you – sometimes fresh blood helps you do better – we need to build a base. For that, consistency is important. I think we work with both of our drivers very well so at the moment for us there is nothing to be changed."

Steiner added that he believes the experience of current pairing of Grosjean and Magnussen are helping the team develop in the early stages of its F1 history.

"Yeah, I think these guys help but I cannot say if it would have been different if we had someone else in the car, because we don't have the years of experience to say, 'With this guy we did better than that one.'

"We're only in our second year and sometimes you forget that. It looks like we've been here forever now but we've not. Like in any business or sport, you have your ups and downs but I think we are pretty stable and for sure the drivers are helping to grow the team."