Grosjean: Haas can’t afford to lose test time

Limited to only six days of pre-season testing, Romain Grosjean admits Haas “can’t afford” issues such as last year’s fuse problem.

Last February Grosjean covered 407 laps during the eight days of pre-season testing, four more than his team-mate Kevin Magnussen while test driver Pietro Fittipaldi added 61 to Haas’ tally.

That, though, meant the team was in the bottom half of the board.

Haas’ 871 was over 300 short of Mercedes’ tally, that’s almost five grands prix distances.

On one day alone Haas had three stoppages, all the result of the same electrical problem which turned out to be a fuse issue.

This year, with two days fewer to run, Grosjean says Haas cannot afford a similar issue.

“It’s a big change, it’s a big difference,” the Frenchman told Motorsport.com.

“All it takes is for the weather not to be yours and it’s a lost day right away.

“Last year, we had a lot of electrical problems when it was just a fuse somewhere that was bothering us, and it put us out of action for whole mornings.

“Now, we can’t afford to have that.

“We have to have the car working. We have to drive it and push it on a little bit, in all possible circumstances, to be ready so we know what to do at the races.”

Pre-season testings gets underway on Wednesday morning at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Grosjean has already put the new Ferrari-powered VF-20 through its paces in a shakedown at the Spanish circuit.

So glad to have this soundtrack back in our lives 🔊😍#VF20 #HaasF1 pic.twitter.com/06GTFehmb8

— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) February 17, 2020

“It is always good to be back in the car,” he said after Monday’s run. “I’m very happy.

“The car looks nice and it was good.

“Let’s see what happens when we get proper tyres on.

“It feels good on track.

“It is limited running, limited in what we can take from it but very very much looking forward to this week.”

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