According to Haas F1 owner Gene Haas, in order for his team to replicate the success they had during this season’s first four races, Ferrari needs to step up their game as well.
The team owner believes that the full potential of their relationship with Ferrari has yet to be exploited and that more could have been achieved had Ferrari been less hesitant.
“The model does work really well with Ferrari, and if anything I hope we can get more out of it too,” said Haas in an interview with Autosport. “There’s always been some hesitation on Ferrari’s part, as far as working with us, because of the FIA regulations.”
“So they’ve been very, very careful to be sure they follow everything by the rules, and we’ve been very upfront with the FIA about exactly what they’re doing.”
“In retrospect, I think we could’ve done more,” said Haas while referring to the development of their VF-16 Formula 1 race car.
With 28 points totaled so far during the 2016 season, Haas is currently trailing a surging McLaren-Honda team by 14 points, while maintaining a 22-point lead over struggling Renault.
“Our car is quite a bit different from the Ferrari, as much as people think they’re all the same, but we struggle a little bit with our chassis, trying to understand it,” added Haas.
“With Ferrari, they supply us with a lot of parts, but they don’t necessarily provide us with information about how it all works.”
It seems that the learning curve has been rather steep for Haas as of late, and moving up from P8 in the Constructor Standings would mean surpassing the likes of McLaren or Toro Rosso, both of which have performed better this year than the American-owned outfit.
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