The Haas Formula 1 team will be treating the Austrian Grand Prix weekend like a test session as it aims to rectify its race pace issues.
Having shown strong one lap pace at certain events this year, Haas has been unable to carry over its speed into the race.
Last time out at the Canadian Grand Prix, Nico Hulkenberg started from fifth on the grid but slipped down the order as the race progressed.
The German called on Haas to implement a long-term strategy to fix its issues and become more competitive during grands prix.
Ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend, Haas team boss Guenther Steiner says it will use the revised Sprint weekend format to focus on installing new ideas in a bid to find answers over its worrying form.
“We’re going into this race partly a little bit like a test session as well,” Steiner said. “We have a lot of things to try and cure our problems with the race pace, so we have a few ideas.
“As we have two races now this weekend, we’ve got double the amount of time to try to do different things.
“Obviously, we always try to get the best result possible but also maybe we compromise the best result possible for really understanding what is happening with our car on race day.”
Haas has scored points on three occasions this year, including a seventh-place result at the chaotic Australian Grand Prix.
However, it has been largely uncompetitive at the most recent rounds and is now aiming to strike a balance between its qualifying and race form going forward.
“We’re investigating the very good performance we have in qualifying and not-so-good performance during the race at the moment,” Steiner said.
“We’re trying to pinpoint it but for the next races we’re maybe going to try and find a sweeter spot between the two sessions, qualifying and the race, so something in the middle.
“We’re working hard on it and trying to find out what we can do over the next races to make it better.”
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