Steiner: Haas must manage expectations

Editor

Guenther Steiner is refusing to get carried away by Haas' P6 on debut as the biggest task – replicating that result – awaits the American team.

Haas made a flying start to their Formula 1 career as Romain Grosjean raced from 19th on the Melbourne grid to sixth at the chequered flag.

It was an incredible result after a weekend of many highs and lows.

"We had our ups and downs," Steiner said. "It started off not too pretty, and then qualifying was not what we wished for, but the team bounced back and we got ready for Sunday.

"We showed a good race speed and we are ready to go racing. In the end it was all positive. It was hard to get to the positive, but with a lot of work with a lot of hard-working people, we got there.

"Now the biggest task is to replicate this, which won’t be easy, but for sure we will be trying again."

But while Haas will be pushing for a repeat performance, Steiner has warned that it won't always go their way making it is important to manage the team's expectations.

"I think our plan is working, but we won’t finish sixth every weekend, so we need to be careful with our expectations," said the team principal.

"I think we showed that you can start a new team and end up in the midfield.

"We were not last in Australia, which was one of our goals, and I don’t think we will be last this year. How far we’ve come is a sign that our plan is working."

He added: "We are not being arrogant about our early success and we will have our races where we will underperform.

"Our sixth-place finish in Australia keeps the team going, working very hard and trying to do the best possible job we can.

"If we continue to do what we did in Melbourne, good results will come."