Red flag fatal to Haas F1 Team’s Belgian ambitions

What a distant memory the start of the season seems for Haas and especially Romain Grosjean! In the Belgian Ardennes, the Frenchman completed another race outside the points, the fourth consecutive one. Yet, all hopes were allowed thanks to his very good start, taking advantage of the misfortunes of Verstappen and the two Ferraris to climb into fifth position after the first lap! Just after being overtaken by Sergio Pérez, Grosjean remained well-placed, even though he was only in 10th place at the time of the red flag waved after Magnussen’s accident, due to a tire change made just before the crash.

Harmed by the change made possible for competitors ahead of him (during the interruption), Grosjean thus lost any advantage. Battling in the midfield, particularly against Räikkönen or Vettel, the driver who finished third here in 2015 dropped out of the top 10 on lap 18, surpassed this time by Felipe Massa. Worse, an energy recovery issue affected him, and Esteban Gutiérrez, his own teammate, took the opportunity to get ahead of him.

Despite a brave end to the race, it was too late to climb into the top ten: the red flag and a certain lack of pace had ruined his chances.

Although I got off to a very good start, I lacked good top speed right from the beginning of the race. Something wasn’t working properly on my car, and it took my engineers a few minutes to fix the issue remotely. Once it was repaired, the damage was done. My last stint wasn’t bad, and we still finished well. At least I am happier with the car than I have been recently. It’s very disappointing to have lost an opportunity for a good result.

Never far from his teammate, Esteban Gutierrez experienced a similar fate, with a tire change before that famous red flag.

Thirteenth at the restart, the Mexican then moved ahead of the Frenchman from the 18th lap. Orbiting close but outside the points zone, Gutierrez secured a modest twelfth position, having notably witnessed the unsuccessful comeback of local troublemaker Max Verstappen, who passed him on the 37th lap.

« This was not the expected result. We fought hard to try to reach the top 10, but without success here. The car’s balance was good and we had a reasonable pace. We must hold on for the upcoming races and extract even more competitiveness from the car. We lost time with the safety car intervention and then the red flag. I finished P12 so I am not completely satisfied. But we will continue our efforts. »

A finding corroborated by the Team Principal, Günther Steiner. This race did not really reflect the team’s level of performance.

A race made of ups and downs for us. The red flag pushed us back from good positions. In general, our drivers were running at a good pace. We had a small issue with Romain’s car, which we fixed fairly quickly. We would have liked some points but it didn’t work out. That said, we showed that we could do something if the right conditions were met. A few additional points this season are still hoped for.

With this zero score, the Haas F1 Team remains eighth in the constructors’ standings with a total of 28 points, all scored by Grosjean. Seventeen points behind Toro Rosso, the American team seems to be settling in the midfield, despite unfavorable circumstances this weekend at Spa. Fortunately, a chance for redemption comes as early as next weekend at Monza!