Ferrari power unit 'not fantastic' - Steiner

Haas Formula 1 team principal Guenther Steiner has said he will need to sit down with power unit supplier Ferrari to discover why the 2020 unit is not up to standard.

For the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix, only one of six Ferrari powered cars qualified inside the top ten. In 2019, five cars in the top ten were powered by the Scuderia.

“You can see a little bit of a line through all the Ferrari-powered cars," said Steiner.

"We haven’t done any big analysis, and we haven’t spoken with them about it, so I think, with that question, you speak with the Ferrari guys. They maybe know more about it than me!

“It’s obvious I cannot say it all is fantastic because look where Ferrari is, look where Alfa [Romeo] is, and look where we are. We have to sit down and see what the cause is.”

Both Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, who will start 15th and 16th at the Red Bull Ring, remained optimistic the problems may be circuit-specific issues.

A year ago, though, Magnussen qualified fifth at a track that is the shortest on the calendar in terms of lap time.

A year on, and Steiner has warned he expects the season to be a long, tough one.

"It looks like we will be in for a difficult season here," assessed Steiner.

"In some places, you can do a little bit better, but in general, what you see here and what you saw in Barcelona [in pre-season testing], maybe some races are a little bit better, but to be qualifying like where we were last year, I don’t think that will happen for us [this year] unfortunately.”

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