Luck "can go both ways" as Haas eye Eifel opportunities

Eifel Grand Prix

Luck "can go both ways" as Haas eye Eifel opportunities

Both Haas cars start on row eight at the Nürburgring

Sam Hall

Sunday 11 October 2020 10:29

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner is cautious that luck can "go both ways" as the team looks to benefit from the unpredictable nature of the Eifel Grand Prix.

Steiner has said on numerous occasions across the season that Haas must make the most of abnormal races, a fact the team demonstrated perfectly when scoring its only point of the season in Hungary.

Changeable conditions have been forecast for Sunday, and with teams heading into the race minus data on long-run pace and tyre durability after Friday's two practice sessions were fogged off, Steiner is confident there are opportunities to be had.

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The Italian is acutely aware, however, that just as Haas can benefit from the misfortune of others, there is no guarantee his team's own luck will hold.

“It can go both ways," said the Haas boss. "It can go the opposite way as well.

“If you look at the free practice session, you would expect that there would be more mistakes made but everybody was very well behaved and there was very little [incident].

“I think [Nicholas] Latifi spun once and there were a few little other spins but there were no accidents or anything and everybody was out there a lot."

Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean will both line up on the eighth row of the grid, with the former leading the way in 15th after reaching the second phase of qualifying for the third time this season.

Reflecting on the relatively calm nature of both the Saturday practice and qualifying sessions, Steiner suggested drivers may race below the limit to minimise the risk of mistakes.

He added: “Maybe the race is [quiet] because not everybody is 100 per cent and waits for the opportunity that somebody else goes 102 per cent. I don’t know.

“There could be an opportunity and hopefully we can make something good out of it and nobody else gets the opportunity. That is what we have to hope also.

“It will be cold but we just try to do what we need to do.”

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