Four cars set for pit lane starts at United States Grand Prix

Michelle Foster
Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg puts in the laps at the Circuit of the Americas.

Nico Hulkenberg in the revised Haas VF-23.

Both Haas and Aston Martin will start the United States Grand Prix with their cars in the pit lane, the teams making major set-up changes after their earlier struggles.

With one eye on next season, but still hoping for immediate performance gains, Haas and Aston Martin introduced upgrades at the Circuit of the Americas.

Neither went according to plan.

Pit lane starts for both Haas and Aston Martin drivers

Haas’ B-spec cars, more in line with the “Red Bull concept” as stated by Guenther Steiner, were 14th and 16th in Friday’s qualifying while the Aston Martin with their updated floor and bodywork were 17th and 19th.

With neither team able to make changes to the cars after qualifying under parc ferme rules, they struggled for pace in on Sprint day.

But taking the hit they have now made the call to start the Grand Prix from the pit lane following major set-up changes ahead of the Austin race.

While Haas have not revealed theirs, it is being reported that Aston Martin have put an old floor on Alonso’s car while Stroll will run the Austin update.

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It’s fair to say there weren’t a lot of encouraging words – if any – coming out of either Haas or Aston Martin following Saturday’s point-less Sprint.

At Haas, neither Hulkenberg nor Steiner were happy with the upgrades after Saturday’s point-less running at the Circuit of the Americas.

While Steiner declared “we have to find more as the upgrade’s not done what we expected“, Hulkenberg lamented that there are “still a lot of similarities with the old package and problems, especially in the fast corners here.”

Scoring just one point in the last eight Grands Prix, Haas have fallen behind Alfa Romeo in the standings where they trail their fellow Ferrari customer team by four points to sit ninth.

As for Aston Martin, Alonso conceded they were on the back foot opting to introduce a big upgrade at a Sprint weekend with just one practice hour.

“It was a bit risky to bring maybe the upgrades to a Sprint format. You rely so much on a perfect FP1 with two cars doing different tests between the two, and we had a very chaotic FP1. Since that moment, I think we are on the back foot,” he said.

The team is holding onto fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship by a mere 11 points ahead of McLaren.

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