Guenther Steiner believes Haas is better positioned to deliver a strong car in 2023 than it was this year, due to the evolution of its design office in Maranello.

Haas set up its design office at Ferrari’s headquarters in Italy, making use of its technical partnership with the Scuderia and also being closer to where much of the car is manufactured at Dallara. As the new department — which includes members seconded from Ferrari — was only operating from 2021, team principal Steiner believes it has understood how to be more productive when it comes to the 2023 car.

“We established the department in Italy at the beginning of last year,” Steiner said. “We started almost from nothing and what we’ve produced for this year I think is a very good result.

“With the lessons learned this year, we just keep on trying to work on next year’s car even harder and I think we’re in a better place because the group now is more in-tune and they’re seeing what we need to do to on this new regulation car for next year. We’ve switched to the design of next year’s car a few months ago, so the team keeps on learning and working hard so that we get a good car for 2023.”

Steiner hopes to see Haas improve on its all-around competitiveness. He expects a tough weekend in Monza as the team continues an inconsistent season, having reached Q3 at the last race in Zandvoort.

“We know that Monza will not be a strong point for us. All the high-speed, low-downforce racetracks don’t suit our car,” he noted. “This year we’re not in a position to fight on these tracks, but the team in Italy is working hard on some solutions for next year and I’m sure we’ll get them so next year we’ll be in a better place.

“We use these races to gain experience and collect data for the development of next year. We always try to do our best — you never know, there could be rain there. You always need to be 100 percent; you never say this will be a bad race. If we know that it will be challenging, we are working harder.”