Formula 1's newest team struggled not only to find the right setup on Friday but also with reliability as multiple issues hampered their running around the Shanghai International Circuit in China.
Haas' Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez finished 14th and 21st respectively in second practice, with the latter completing just six laps in total across both practice sessions.
Gutierrez's run of bad luck looks to have continued after the Mexican suffered an issue with a gearbox sensor in the morning before a brake-by-wire failure saw him retire in the afternoon.
"Challenging day today, especially for Esteban," said team principal Guenther Steiner. "In the morning we had an issue with a gearbox sensor, which stopped him going out. Then in the afternoon, we had a problem with the brake-by-wire system resulting in the brakes seizing and subsequently catching fire.
"Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to get back out on track as we had to change everything in the backend."
Meanwhile Grosjean enjoyed a better days running, but he too felt uncomfortable in the car and believes the team's lack of knowledge and prior experience at each circuit is holding them back.
"Not an ideal day for the team," he admitted. "We had to try the new front wing, but the track is very difficult to understand.
"We’ve not managed to get everything working properly. The car is very difficult to drive. It’s not so easy. Tonight’s going to be a long night for the guys trying to analyse what we could do better for tomorrow.
"Right now, we’re not at all where we think we could be. We need to understand that and work with that. Today it hurt us that we’re a new team and we don’t have data from previous years. We’ve tried a few different things, but nothing seems to be the fix right now."
