Grosjean ‘concerned’ by lack of Haas upgrades

Romain Grosjean has admitted to a change of heart about a switch to IndyCar, saying he is now “quite tempted by it”.
Romain Grosjean says he is “concerned” about Haas’ lack of upgrades for this season, but said last year showed they don’t always help.
Haas principal Guenther Steiner has said that the team won’t bring any upgrades this season until they have confirmation over what their budget is and how many races there will actually be.
Only eight have been confirmed so far.
Understandably this is a “concern” for Grosjean, but he isn’t forgetting what happened last year.
Haas brought their first major upgrade for the VF-19 to the 2019 Spanish Grand Prix, and Grosjean immediately said it wasn’t good.
The team spent the rest of the season struggling as they consistently sunk down the order on race days, and ultimately they would end up P9 in the Constructors’ Championship.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Grosjean said: “We can focus on what we have and optimise everything we do.
“Obviously I’m maybe a little bit more concerned than Kevin, and we know that F1 is about bringing development and bringing new parts.
“But last year I finished the last race with the kit I started the year on. Sometimes an update doesn’t really work the way you want.
“Yes, it is great to have new parts, it’s great to bring performance, but it doesn’t always work and can make you focus in the wrong place.
“I’m happy to come racing, I think the team survived the crisis. Let’s go racing, let’s get the car how quick we can make it, and see if we need to bring parts.
“I think we have a good baseline from winter testing.
“Obviously now the conditions are doing to be quite different, different track, different layout, different temperatures, but the guys have been optimising everything we’ve learned in winter testing, and that’s good and we don’t have to focus on trying to get new parts to work.
“Over a few races, we’ll see how it goes, and what we can do on the car, but for now we’re actually in a good place, and hopefully the car works well and we can have some fun.”
Celebrate the return of F1 with 25% off annual F1 TV subscriptions! Click here to subscribe
Grosjean’s team-mate Kevin Magnussen, however, said the lack of new parts isn’t a concern for him.
“I’m not really that concerned,” he confirmed.
“Of course we would all prefer to have upgrades rolling in, but we don’t know where we are yet. I think we’re pretty positive, the whole team, after testing.
“We had a good feeling with the car, so there’s no reason to be concerned yet. We’re all positive, and anxious to see where we stack up on the grid. And then regarding all the upgrades, it is what it is.
“We’ve just got to make the best of the car that we have right now, and look after it and pull everything out of it.”
Follow us on Twitter @Planet_F1 and like our Facebook page.