Despite the budget constraints for the 2022 F1 season, Steiner claims that Haas is still the smallest team on the grid.
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Despite focusing all of its efforts on Formula 1’s new era, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner believes the team will retain its “underdog” reputation in 2022. For the 2021 season, Haas elected not to improve its car at all, resulting in its worst season since joining the sport, with the team failing to score a single point. With the cost cap in place and new regulations set to tighten the field, Haas expects to return to the midfield. Despite the budget constraints, Steiner claims that Haas is still the smallest team on the grid.
“I think we will still be the underdog which is trying to punch above its weight because our structure is roughly the same as it was in ’18 and ’19,” he said. “The quantity of people, we changed a little bit the people, instead of using Dallara people now we’ve got our own people and some of the people from Ferrari, which were moved from there because of the budget cap.”
“But we are still the smallest team, people-wise. Production-wise, obviously we are by far the smallest. I think we are still the team we were in ’16, ’17, and ’18 and we want to get back to where we were in ’18 and ’19. We still want to be known to be that,” Steiner added.
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Haas did not benefit from Ferrari’s mid-season power unit upgrade because it did not believe it would provide them with enough of a competitive edge to justify the cost of a new engine. Steiner, on the other hand, is encouraged by the Italian manufacturer’s progress and believes it will help Haas in 2022.
“Very encouraging. I think Ferrari makes good progress also with the combustion engine, not only with the hybrid system for next year,” he added. “But it’s the same as the car – we don’t know what the other ones are doing. I know that they said we will make a nice step this year, so I hope that works and I hope the other ones have not done a mega job. But it’s very encouraging to see that they made a development and it works. The results have got a lot better towards the end of the season as well.”
