Haas hope for pit-stop improvement for Bahrain

Guenther Steiner says a lack of pitstop practice was behind Haas' double DNF at the Australian Grand Prix, with changes to their pit crew to be made in Bahrain this weekend. Both Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean's races were ended in quick succession by loose wheel nuts.

Having pitted from fourth and fifth place, Haas saw a potential best-ever team finish go up in smoke in the space of three laps at Albert Park.

After pre-season billing as the fourth best team in F1, Magnussen took fourth from Max Verstappen off the line and Grosjean had held the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo at bay before pitting.

Team principal Steiner has had accusations of cloning Ferrari's car to contend with, which has perhaps earned Haas' hapless mechanics a reprieve.

"I don't blame it on the guys," he said in Bahrain. "If you think back now it was clear that we should have done more practice instead of hoping that we can continue where we left it last year.

"We were very good at the end of last season compared to all the other ones and that maybe gave us a bit of over-confidence that we didn't practice in Australia.

"We made mistakes in our decisions which then ended up in a mistake on the car."

Haas undertook extended pitstop practice on Wednesday ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, while the formation of those involved will be changed come Sunday.

"We tried to do as much as possible until the race," Steiner said. "It's a fine balance because it's also physical and if people are tired they are just not focused and lose their confidence again.

"We swapped a few positions and the main reason is not because of the mistake, it's to get their confidence back.

"If you keep on doing the same and the guys are not confident, the risk you have of another mistake is high."