Haas is looking for a solution to the tire degradation issues that have affected its prospects at several races this year.
His car, the VF-23, seems to be quite aggressive on the tyres, which is great for tire management in qualifying, but a big handicap for his drivers when it comes to making them last in the race.
Work is being done at the Banbury plant to try and fix the problems, but Steiner doubts that a single magic bullet can be found that can transform the car’s potential.
Asked how well the team understood the problems, Steiner replied: “I think we understand some of them completely. But honestly, we only understand part of them. The operating temperature is too high, but there could be something else.”
Steiner said troubleshooting in F1 is always a long process, and that there has never been a time when a team has made a simple change and its situation has drastically improved.
“You always have to work things out, but then you find the next problem. You can never wait for the holy grail.”
“If you knew why Red Bull is so fast, then why don’t we do the same? So, you have to get there slowly, and everybody gets there slowly.”
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas VF-23, Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-23
Photo by: Erik Junius
“It’s solved a little at a time, hoping that the others don’t make another jump, so we can catch up. We know our tires get too hot, but is there anything else that explains why we have such high tire degradation? “.
Steiner said one of the main hurdles the team had to overcome was accepting that there was something wrong with the car’s design that was triggering the tire problems.
“If you see that obviously other people may handle tires differently, at some point you have to admit that the car is wrong, because we have the same tyres,” he said.
“At one time you even had different rims. But now everyone has the same wheels and tires, so there must be something wrong with the car. And of course admission is the first step to improvement.”
Additional information by Filip Cleeren
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