Haas drop down F1 standings following disappointing Miami Grand Prix - but ‘lessons’ learned for Canada

Haas, American but with their European headquarters in Banbury, began their first home weekend of the season fourth in the constructors’ standings.

However, strong weekends for Red Bull and Alpine meant Haas finished Sunday down in sixth, 12 and five points adrift from the two teams now above them.

In the Sprint, Esteban Ocon came home in 11th, narrowly ahead of teammate Oliver Bearman in 12th. The pair were nearly a minute off leader Lando Norris despite the shorter, 19-lap format.

Then, in the Grand Prix, Bearman battled Alexander Albon for 10th - the final points position - but didn’t quite have enough to beat the Williams driver. Ocon crossed the line in 13th.

“It was very, very close out there,” Bearman said in the media pen post-race.

“I’m a bit disappointed, but like I’ve said this weekend, we were maybe anticipating a more challenging one, given that we didn’t bring any updates to the car.”

As Bearman alluded to, Haas decided to hold back any major upgrades despite having the unforeseen five-week break before Miami.

Haas added a new floor winglet but that was all, with a swathe of developments expected to be completed before Canada.

Ocon, who had Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad for company in the midfield scrap, feels the timing of Haas’ pit stop let the team down.

“We were going for a good race, but unfortunately after the pit stop that was not the case anymore, so we need to review that,” Ocon said.

“I think that it would have been difficult to get into the points as we lacked a little bit of pace and it was quite tricky to stay on track and get a good rhythm.

“We had some degrading on the tyres as we were pushing hard. There are still plenty of positives to take and a lot of lessons for us.”

Next on track in Montreal on the weekend of May 23, Haas will be eager to return to form and close back up to their rivals.