Haas team boss Günther Steiner says his Formula 1 racing team is still working on a solution to its tire overheating problems before fully moving on to developing the new Formula 1 car for the 2024 season.
The 2023 Haas car showed good pace in qualifying, especially in the hands of the returning Nico Hülkenberg. However, problems with the VF-23’s tires overheating, particularly on more demanding tracks and in warmer conditions, prevented the team from converting their one-lap pace into decent race-distance results.
Hülkenberg and his teammate Kevin Magnussen only managed to finish in the points twice, leaving Haas in seventh place in the table going into the second half of the season.
The disastrous Belgian Grand Prix, the last race before the summer break, in which Magnussen and Hulkenberg finished 15th and 18th, indicated that Haas still hasn’t found a solution.
In an interview with “Autosport”, a sister publication of “Motorsport-Total.com” under the umbrella of “Motorsport Network”, team boss Steiner admits that Haas’ season so far has been “difficult to digest”.
“Obviously we started pretty well, but then we didn’t get our problems under control straight away, namely the overheating of the tires,” says Steiner in his assessment of the season so far.
“Now we’re a bit behind. We can have very good qualifying sessions and very bad races – we can do both. It’s a rollercoaster ride for the whole team to experience these highs on Saturday and these lows on Sunday. That’s hard to do digest.”
“We’re working very hard on it and hopefully we’ll have achieved something after the break. But it’s not easy and you don’t know until you’ve tried it on the car.”
Steiner: Haas cannot ignore the problem
“You can do a lot of simulations, calculations, whatever. But you have to try the stuff on the car because compared to everyone else we still have a very strange problem. But you can’t give up.”
Many midfield rivals have shifted the bulk of their resources towards 2024, but Steiner points out that his team must first address the root cause of the tire issues lest the problem carry over to next year’s project.
“I think we have to solve this problem beforehand. We can drive parallel to 2024, but we cannot ignore this problem now and just go for 2024,” he explains. “If you don’t understand it, then it could be back in the 24 car and that would be pretty stupid. We’re working flat out on the 23 car now to make it better.”
Haas shares the drive unit, transmission and suspension with partner team Ferrari and also uses the same wind tunnel. Coincidentally, Ferrari are also struggling to keep their tires alive and repeat their qualifying performances over a race distance.
It is suspected that Haas’ problems could be taken over by Ferrari. Steiner notes that the two teams did not suffer from exactly the same problems, but concedes that the similarities warranted further investigation.
“It’s very strange. You see it a lot less with them because they’re further up the field, but if they hadn’t had it, maybe they would win races? But that’s not my job to talk about it, it’s Fred’s.” , adds Steiner.
Steiner: We could have been much higher up in Formula 1
“If you look at the Ferrari, it’s not the same problem. And the point is that doesn’t make our problem any better. If someone else is having a bad day and I’m having a bad day, it doesn’t make my day any better. Me still having a bad day.”
“But of course you have to look at it and we do. It’s not like we’re sitting here doing nothing, but there could be a problem with the details.”
Haas’ plight is particularly frustrating because several midfield rivals started the season with an inherently slower car, but the team failed to capitalize on it before others could catch up.
“Absolutely. If we had put our things in order, we could have been much higher,” says Steiner. “But the only thing you can do in such situations is to put your head down and keep working.”
“McLaren have made good strides, you have to give them that. They’ve done a good job. But the good thing is that it’s possible. Just knowing that it’s possible is motivating.”