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Romain Grosjean says Haas’s qualifying engine mode in 2020 is “not as powerful as it once was”, suggesting the problems the team is facing can be attributed in part to a lack of power from Ferrari.
Prior to the start of the 2020 Formula 1 season, the FIA issued a technical directive that tightened up interpretation of regulations regarding oil consumption and ERS power management – a move that was done in partnership with Ferrari following the conclusion of a private settlement over its controversial 2019 engine.
Haas endured a disappointing start to the season at the Red Bull Ring last weekend with neither Grosjean or team-mate Kevin Magnussen finishing the Austrian Grand Prix, after they both qualified on the eighth row of the grid.
In a session with French media immediately after qualifying last Saturday, Grosjean said: “I was shocked by the engine. When we go in qually mode there is much less than last year. Much less.”
When asked if the Haas drivers agreed with team boss Gunther Steiner’s prediction that both cars would be struggling to escape Q1 and Q2 all year ahead of the Styrian Grand Prix on Thursday, Grosjean said: “What we know is that there aren’t any big upgrade plans on the car so that’s obviously… we’re not expecting a big step of performance in terms of the car itself.
“But again it was only the first weekend and we can always try to fine tune few things, we’ve got ideas in mind for this weekend and see if we can improve.
“Yes, it looks like the quali mode is not as powerful as it was in the past, but again, I’m sure everyone is working as hard as they can to find the best performance out there and make sure that we can try to start the race in a better position.”
Alfa Romeo also uses a Ferrari engine and appeared to have recorded a slump in performance at the Red Bull Ring last weekend, but driver Kimi Raikkonen said that he didn’t think the problems were entirely related to the power unit.
“No I don’t think it’s all down to that. Probably part of it,” said Raikkonen.
“I don’t think we had a bad feeling with a car. There wasn’t some massively big issue in one place or two corners, the lap time wasn’t fast enough and we definitely want to be faster than we were comparing to last year.
“But that’s what we got last weekend and we’ll try to get better again. We know what we have and what we have to deal with and we’ll try to get the best out of it.”
EMERGENCY BRAKE STEP AVAILABLE
Grosjean has revealed Haas has an “emergency” step available to keep its brake temperature problems under control this weekend should it be required.
Both Grosjean and Magnussen retired from last Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix with brake problems.
Grosjean was able to run longer having been instructed to do more cooling from early in the race on a conservative run, partly because the team also detected some floor and front wing problems.
While Grosjean retired on lap 50, Magnussen was able to race a little harder and climbed as high as 11th before retiring after completing 24 laps.
The team intends to focus on ensuring the brake temperatures are under control in Friday practice without resorting to the “emergency” step.
“It was temperature related and obviously our cooling hasn’t been efficient enough, especially in traffic, so we’re looking at different options to get the brakes under control,” said Grosjean when asked about the brake problems by The Race.
“It’s never great starting a race knowing that you need by lap two to lift and coast to save the brakes.
“The boys have been looking at as many options as they could. We have one more emergency step, I believe, in the pocket.
“But I guess tomorrow morning and then afternoon will be all focused on getting those temps under control.”
Magnussen said he’s hopeful the brake problem will be solved, but that it resulted in him having to lift and coast more in last Sunday’s race.
“I’m not too worried about it and pretty hopeful we’ll have rectified the issues,” said Magnussen.
“In the race, I was getting told to do a lot more lift and coast than we had planned for.”
