LewEngBridewell wrote:Excellent stuff from Haas this weekend. They've done a remarkable job, and 6th place was no easy feat for a new team. Grosjean didn't even seem to be holding up the cars behind!
Haas has done something that Marussia, Hispania, Lotus/Caterham and Super Aguri and many others failed to do on their first attempt.
Well done to them.
You also have to factor in that Manor, HRT and Lotus didn't have extensive help and support from the oldest team in the sport!
myownalias • The Englishman in Kansas • Twitter: @myownalias
Romain Grosjean says there is potential to unlock as much as 0.5s of one-lap performance from the Haas in the coming races.
Grosjean got his first season with the new American team off to a dream start, with a sixth-place finish in Australia and and fifth in Bahrain, putting him fifth in the standings ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. Qualifying has been a slightly different story after the team did not make it out of Q1 in Australia, before qualifying ninth with Grosjean in Bahrain.
An extra 0.5s of performance would have put him sixth in Q2 in Bahrain, splitting the two Williams, and Grosjean said the team is setting its targets high for coming races.
"Behind Ferrari would be nice!" he said. "On paper we are not miles off Ferrari. Lap time wise ... I don't know how much was track evolution but let's look at the end of Q2 where we are one second away, a bit more than that. It's not ridiculous if we get everything right we should have another 0.4-0.5s possibly to gain."
Grosjean is also confident there is race pace to be found in the car's set-up, which means scoring regular points is a realistic proposition.
"Yes, in the race there is more performance coming as we're not at 100% of the set-up. There are going to be circuits that suit us better than others and we have to keep working, but yeah, I think we can [continue to aim for points]. We are a new team - it's not like the car is perfect and we can put it on track and that's where we are. We have a very good baseline, but there are a few things that we can improve."
Asked where the team needs to improve, Grosjean said: "There are a few things... You want more downforce with no more drag on the car; you want a few places to be improved - I think this weekend we have a few ideas what we can do on the mechanical set-up as well.
"You are used to numbers from the past and you come here and the numbers are different so it tends to go in one direction and then the numbers one day don't mean what they used to mean, so you have to kind of reset your mind and it's not easy to do."
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point.
"Behind Ferrari would be nice!" - sounds very much like a corporate line... I don't think that the red suited boys and girls at Maranello would like being beaten by the upstarts,
myownalias • The Englishman in Kansas • Twitter: @myownalias
Taylor says Haas' biggest challenge comes when fitting parts designed for Ferrari's SF16-H to its own 2016 challenger.
"Our biggest anxiety isn't to do with 'Will it fit when it's finished and installed?' It's 'Can you get it in there? Can you get your pinkies in?' The little bit of the front rocker for instance is a bit of a tortuous route.
"We're building our chassis and they're building their chassis with the nuances of a millimetre clearance. It's not whether the whole rocker is going to work in the car, it's the stupid question of 'Oh dear, it won't go in, find a mechanic with smaller hands!'"
Bigger is not better!? Maybe they should talk to small-handed Trump?
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point.
Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point. 
))
After the agony of defeat, success will be sweet!
