The Haas team have halted development of its current car to focus exclusively on next season's challenger as it bids to get off to a similar flying start in 2017, according to team principal Guenther Steiner.
The American-led outfit, which has a technical partnership with Ferrari and Dallara, halted development of the 2016 car "quite early" as they are satisfied its level of performance can see out the season whilst also allowing it to get a head start on next year.
"We are fulltime on the '17 car," explained Stiner. "We are not doing anything with the ‘16 car anymore.
"Where we are with the ‘17 car, we think we are in a good place, but until after we go out next year at the first test, we don’t know because other people are developing. We are always trying to hit a moving target, but everybody’s confident we are getting there.
"Wind tunnel sessions are filled with parts to try, we are doing CFD, we are maxed out on everything as allowed by the FIA and everybody seems to be confident that we are on the right path. Where we are – only next year will tell when we get on the track."
Steiner doesn't believe the late Halo decision will impact their development plans, despite being well underway with the design of the chassis of which the Halo forms an integral part.
"At the moment, we are assuming that there will be a Halo," he added. "And if there is none, it’s pretty simple to take it out before we go to production.
'The production of the moulds and the tooling will start sometime in September, so we’ve got still some time and, by then, it will be decided what to do."
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