“There is that risk, but we need to live with that risk,” F1 team, Haas after abandoning car development in 2021

“There is that risk, but we need to live with that risk,” F1 team, Haas after abandoning car development in 2021

Mick Schumacher and Guenther Steiner

WhatsApp Image 2021 01 14 at 2.16.15 AM
Mick Schumacher and Guenther Steiner

Haas, the American owned F1 team dropped it’s plans of developing the car for the year 2021. The team made a call on how to use it’s restricted aero testing resources, switching their focus on their 2022 car. This decision means that there will be no modification in the VF21 after the testing in Bahrain.

Team boss, Gunther Steiner accepted the fact that there was a huge risk involved, but they have to deal with it anyway.

“Yeah, there is that risk, but we need to live with that risk,” Steiner told Motorsport.com. “We need to see the big picture is the mid- to long-term, it’s not the short-term. If we just see the short term, then in 2022 it will be, ‘Why didn’t we do the 2022 car? Because now we cannot catch up.’ It’s very difficult to catch up with the aero restrictions and the budget cap. So you put as much in as you can on the front end,” he added.

It will be quite a challenging season going forward: Steiner

Gunther Steiner believes that the 2021 season will be very challenging one for Haas. However, he stated that the team is prepared for the challenge and will give their best shot.

“We’ve braced ourselves for it. We’ll do as much as we can for this year for the mid-term, compromise the short term for the gains on the mid- to long term. That’s our plan at the moment,” Steiner said.

When asked about the team’s goals for the 2021 season, he stated that his main aim is to provide education to the two rookie drivers, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.

“Damage control, trying to do the best,” he said. “For me success would be to get two drivers prepared for the future by the end of the year. That will be success, that we learn, so in ’22 we don’t have any issues anymore, where we say these are rookie drivers and they still need to learn,” Steiner added.

“They learn for a year, and I think it is a good opportunity, because the pressure will not be as high as when you have a good car. So I think our ambitions are realistic,” he concluded.

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