A respectable debut season in Formula 1 saw Haas finish eighth in the 2016 constructors’ championship. The American team showed flashes of brilliance during its maiden season but struggled for consistency often having erratic results.
The big question is whether Haas can avoid the dreaded ‘second season syndrome’ a phrase commonly associated with football where a newly-promoted team into the top division succeeds in the first season but has a significant downturn in form in the second.
Haas’ F1 campaign started better than anyone could have ever imagined with Romain Grosjean finishing sixth in Australia after benefiting from a red flag period which allowed him to change tyres without making an actual pitstop. The next race in Bahrain showed Haas’ true potential with Grosjean exploiting the strengths of the VF-16 with his ultra-aggressive driving style helped by his team’s aggressive strategy opting for super-soft tyres allowing him to finish fifth.
While this was the peak of Haas’ highs in its debut season, it blew the new teams of 2010’s efforts out of the water showing the model of working closely with an established team like Ferrari is the way forward.
Haas’ lack of experience soon showed as the season progressed as points finishes soon stopped and Grosjean appeared to be increasingly frustrated. The main route of the American-based team’s problems was the inconsistencies of its brake – currently supplied by Brembo.
“I can’t live with the weight of brake issues,” said Grosjean, after 2017 pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
“It clearly is something key for me and I struggle a lot because of that.
“Now, we’ll try to work at best with people at Brembo to find solutions.”
Grosjean’s lack of confidence on the brakes, something which is his main strength, was clear for everyone to see as Esteban Gutierrez began to outperform him. Grosjean may have won the qualifying battle 12-9 but on average was just 0.005s ahead showing the competitiveness between the duo.
While Gutierrez showed glimpses of speed throughout 2016, his ability to bring the car home in points paying positions ultimately cost him his drive to Kevin Magnussen, who signs for the team after spending a year with Renault.
Haas’ driver line-up is certainly an upgrade on last season’s. Magnussen may not have set the world alight last season alongside Jolyon Palmer but he is a significant upgrade on Gutierrez, who has one points finish to his name in his whole F1 career spanning three seasons.
Compared to Haas’ midfield competitors, they arguably have a strong line-up than Williams, Toro Rosso and Renault, and you could argue a Grosjean-Magnussen is on a par or even ahead of Perez-Ocon, should the car be competitive and allow both drivers to drive to their full potential and strengths, then you can be sure Grosjean and Magnussen will bring the points home.
Haas will be hoping for a more consistent season after having erratic performances in 2016. In Japan, both Grosjean and Gutierrez made into Q3 but three weeks’ later in Mexico, both cars failed to make it into Q2. New engineers, new team, new people to the sport, it’s understandable why they had these inconsistencies but now in year two, these have to stop.
An improved Ferrari power unit with strong reliability and two competitive drivers means Haas look to be in good standing going into the new season which gets underway on March 26. With the midfield looking to be so tight between Williams, Force India, Renault, Toro Rosso and Haas, the American team will be hoping for some more Grosjean magic, similar to that in 2015 for Lotus and at the start of last season.
