Steiner reflects on fine debut season

Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutiérrez finished 11th and 12th respectively in the final race of the season.
Haas F1 Team boss Guenther SteinerHaas F1 Team boss Guenther Steiner
Haas F1 Team boss Guenther Steiner

Grosjean started from 14th to finish 11th, one spot shy of a point-paying outcome in Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

It was the Banbury team’s eighth 11-place finish of the year with Grosjean collecting three of those results while Gutiérrez accounted for the other five.

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Grosjean maintained his 11th-place standing in the running order and set his sights on the McLaren of tenth-place Fernando Alonso. Despite being a second faster than the two-time champion with ten laps to go, Grosjean could not close the gap and had to settle for 11th.

Gutiérrez had climbed to 11th by the end of lap 28. Another pit stop took Gutiérrez to the finish but it allowed Grosjean to leapfrog his Banbury team-mate.

Haas ends its debut season with a very respectable eighth-place finish in the constructor standings, one place ahead of Renault.

Team boss Guenther Steiner said: “We had a competitive car and we finished the year on a high even if we didn’t get in the points.

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“I felt we had one of our best races with both drivers just out of the points. That is a nice way to finish our first season.”

Grosjean said: “We’ve had a wonderful season and surprised everyone, ourselves included, with some highs and some lows.

“We didn’t score points on Sunday but if you take out the top six cars of Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, we’re only the third team behind, which is not that bad.

“All the other teams are close to their limits where we have so much that we can improve on for next season. I’m looking forward to it.”

Gutiérrez added: “I’m very happy to have worked with everyone on this team, which started from scratch, and to be a part of the project through the season.”

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