Haas face "a big mountain to climb" to fix reliability woes

Guenther Steiner has conceded Haas has "a big mountain to climb" to fix reliability issues that cost the team valuable track time during pre-season testing.

Mick Schumacher may have set the second-fastest time of testing overall with Kevin Magnussen topping the timesheets on Friday, but the American-owned team spent a significant amount of time trapped in the garage with a number of reliability problems.

“What we need to start working on is the reliability," said team principal Guenther Steiner.

"We didn’t have it as we wanted it and we’ve got a big mountain to climb ahead of us. Performance-wise, it’s difficult to say because we haven’t done enough running, but I would say it doesn’t look bad.”

Haas ended last season bottom of the constructors' standings and as the only team without a point.

However, the team was open from the start of the year that all its focus would be on the 2022 car and the opportunities presented by the new regulations.

Asked what would represent success for Haas in the Bahrain season-opener, Steiner added: “First of all, to finish the race.

"We had a lot of issues reliability-wise that I’m a bit scared of, but I think if we can finish the race, we have a big chance.

"I’m optimistic, cautiously optimistic, about getting into the points and that would be success."

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