Haas boss Guenther Steiner believes the team’s focus at the Italian Grand Prix is likely to be a data-gathering experience, owing to the pace of the VF-22.
Haas is in a close fight for seventh in the Constructors’ Championship against AlphaTauri and Aston Martin, a battle which it currently leads.
But Steiner is not optimistic that the package will suit the upcoming event at the high-speed Monza track.
“We know that Monza will not be a strong point for us,” said Steiner. “All the high-speed, low downforce race tracks don’t suit our car.
“This year we’re not in a position to fight on these race 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 so we’re in a much better place hopefully than this year.
“We always try to do our best, you never know, there could be rain there. You always need to be 100 per cent, you never say this will be a bad race. If we know that it will be challenging, we are working harder.”
Haas has a design office on Ferrari’s Maranello campus and Steiner is optimistic that the maturing group can address the shortcomings of the VF-22 for next year.
“We established the department in Italy at the beginning of last year,” Steiner explained.
“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 keep working hard so that we get a good car for 2023.”
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