Haas points possible ‘if the stars’ line up

Guenther Steiner is not ruling out Haas scoring points on their Formula 1 debut but admits the stars with need to align for that to happen.

This weekend Haas' F1 career will officially get underway as Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez take to the track in Melbourne.

There is a great deal of expectation surrounding Haas' debut after the team experienced the best pre-season of any newcomer in the past decade.

Despite that team boss Steiner is refusing to get his hopes up, conceding Haas would never everything to go their way to finish inside the top ten.

"If all the stars are in the right place, it will be realistic but they need to be all lined up," he said.

"After the test, because the second week we wanted to do more set-up work and we haven't done it, I'm a little bit – I wouldn't say scared – but a little bit conservative that we hit the right set-up.

"I think the car is the right platform but now we have to find the right set-up.

"If we hit the set-up right and we can get more confidence then I think it's possible."

Meanwhile Romain Grosjean has Haas are tight on spare parts, something he has already experienced having suffered the same woes with Lotus.

However, for Haas it is a matter of time whereas with Lotus it was finances.

He told Autosport: "We don't have many spare parts, but it's a different problem. 

"We didn't have time to build them [this year], and we didn't get them last year [at Lotus]."

He added: "There will be problems, there always have been in Formula 1 through a season.

"We will probably discover more than other teams, but from what we have learned through testing, it should help us get a lot more knowledge and be ready for being here."