Haas facing wait for upgrades - Steiner

Haas

Haas facing wait for upgrades - Steiner

Magnussen and Schumacher will be made to wait for upgrades to the Haas VF-22

Sam Hall

Monday 16 May 2022 16:15

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has revealed Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen face a wait of 'four or five races' for upgrades to the VF-22.

This weekend's Spanish Grand Prix will likely see a raft of upgrades up and down the paddock with teams eager to compare current data to that gathered at the first pre-season test in February.

But this is not the case at Haas with Steiner determined to extract the most from the current package before adding new parts.

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"Normally Spain is the obvious place to bring upgrades and I think quite a few teams are planning them," said Steiner.

"I don’t know how much difference they will make on each car and what they will bring.

"We have decided to wait a little bit longer with upgrades as I still think we have performance in the car without them which we have to get on the track, so sometimes we achieve it, sometimes we don’t.

"We have a good upgrade package in about four or five races coming, so I’m confident about that and what the other ones are bringing, as of right now I don’t know, but I will know a lot more next Monday."

The delay revealed by Steiner means Schumacher and Magnussen will potentially only see the Haas upgrades at either Silverstone or the Red Bull Ring, both races that are scheduled to take place in July.

Haas Miami outcome "disappointing"

After scoring points at three of the first four grands prix of the year, Haas endured a tough weekend in Miami.

Both Magnussen and Schumacher made contact with Aston Martin drivers Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel during the 57-laps with the Dane forced to retire late on.

“It was quite disappointing in both qualifying and the race, but we need to keep positive," added Steiner.

"The positives are the car is good, we just need to get it on the right set-up, getting the tyres to work properly and the car is right there.

"As you could see during the race in Miami, we made up positions until the safety car came out and then we fell back.

"That’s what you have to focus on – staying confident that we have a good machine and that we will make the points that we want to make.”