The Haas team continues to investigate its tyre degradation problems and admits there may be a link to Ferrari after all
Haas team boss Guenther Steiner says his racing team is still working on a solution to its tyre overheating problems before it can fully switch to developing the new Formula One car for the 2024 season
The 2023 Haas car showed good pace in qualifying, especially in the hands of the returning Nico Hülkenberg. But problems with the VF-23’s tyres overheating, especially on more demanding tracks and in warmer conditions, prevented the team from translating its one-lap pace into decent results over the race distance.
Hülkenberg and teammate Kevin Magnussen could only finish in the points twice each, leaving Haas seventh in the standings ahead of the second half of the season.
The disastrous Belgian Grand Prix, the last race before the summer break, in which Magnussen and Hülkenberg finished 15th and 18th, suggested Haas still hasn’t found a solution.
“Obviously we started pretty well, but then we didn’t get a grip on our problems right away, which was the overheating of the tyres,” Steiner said in his assessment of the season so far.
“Now we are a bit behind. We can do very good qualifying and very bad races – we can do both. It’s a rollercoaster for the whole team to have these highs on Saturday and these lows on Sunday. It’s hard to digest.”
“We are working very hard on it and hopefully we will have achieved something after the break. But it’s not easy and until you try it on the car you don’t know.”
“You can do a lot of simulations, calculations, whatever. But you have to try this stuff on the car, because compared to everybody else we still have a very strange problem. But you can’t give up.”
Many midfield rivals have shifted the bulk of their resources towards 2024, but Steiner points out that his team must first fix the root cause of the tyre problems so that the problem does not carry over to next year’s project.
“I think we need to solve this problem before then. We can go parallel to 2024, but we can’t ignore this problem now and just go for 2024,” he explained. “If it’s not understood then it could be back in the 24 car and that would be pretty stupid. We’re working flat out on the 23 car now to make it better.”
Haas shares the power unit, gearbox and suspension with partner team Ferrari and also uses the same wind tunnel. Coincidentally, Ferrari is also struggling to keep its tyres alive and repeat its qualifying performance over a race distance.
It is thought that Haas’ problems could be picked up by Ferrari. Steiner notes that the two teams did not suffer from exactly the same problems, but concedes that the similarities warrant further investigation.
“It’s very strange. With them you see it much less because they are further in front, but if they hadn’t had it, maybe they would be winning races? But that’s not my job to talk about it, that’s Fred’s job,” Steiner added.
“If you look at the Ferrari, it’s not the same problem. And the point is that doesn’t make our problem any better. If someone else has a bad day and I have a bad day, it doesn’t make my day better. I still have a bad day.”
“But of course you have to look at that as well, and we do. It’s not like we’re sitting here doing nothing, but there might be a problem with the details. “
Haas’ plight is particularly frustrating because several midfield rivals started the season with an inherently slower car, but the team failed to capitalise before others caught up.
“Absolutely. If we had got our stuff right, we could have been a lot further up,” says Steiner. “But the only thing you can do in these situations is to put your head down and keep working.”
“McLaren have made good steps forward, you have to give them that. They have done a good job. But the good thing is that it is possible. Just knowing it’s possible is a motivation. “
