Haas announced Monday the team will wait until after September’s race at Monza to make decision on their driver line-up for the 2017 campaign.
Haas, an American team in its first year of Formula One competition, has seen Frenchman Romain Grosjean score all 28 points in its history thus far, while teammate Esteban Gutierrez has struggled for most of the season with technical issues on the VF-16. Gutierrez, however, has come close to finishing within the points, finishing P11 on three occasions this season.
With the significant changes in FIA regulations set to hit the sport in 2017, a multitude of changes are expected to hit the team. Additionally, Ferrari junior and GP3 championship leader, and Haas test driver Charles Leclerc is expected to be in contention for one of the team’s seats.
During the weekend of the British Grand Prix, team principal Gunther Steiner spoke on the Ferrari protege, and the impact he left on the Haas team after piloting one of their cars during a test session.
It was the first time the 18-year-old got behind the wheel of an F1 car.
“I found it quite good how calm he was about the whole thing, and we must never forget this is an 18-year-old kid in an F1 car – the fastest race car in the world,” he said.
“I wasn’t surprised by him, but I was impressed by him and what he did. He was very professional, he did a good job, and he showed he can do it.”
Steiner spoke on the matter of the driver line-up next season.
“Nothing has been decided,” he told Autosport.com. “I’ve spoken specifically with Gene [Haas, owner], and we’ve said we’re not talking about drivers, or what we are doing, until the European season is over.”
The discussion of drivers can’t take place until the team decide which direction they’ll take next season. Until then, such a conversation serves as nothing but a distraction, Steiner said.
“It’s a distraction. In the end we know what everybody can do, but we need to see a little bit more, and where we want to be. As a team, what do we want to achieve next year? There is so much unclear as to where we are.”
Steiner also said that the duo of Grosjean and Gutierrez have done sufficient enough job to retain their seats, currently.
“Everybody here is doing a good job, and we have no problems, with either the engineering staff or our drivers. We are pretty happy.”
Aside from the aforementioned Leclerc, Haas also have American teenager Santino Ferrucci in the distance, who also spent two days testing at Silverstone for the team. The 17-year-old isn’t quite ready enough for F1, but Steiner said he was left with an impression similar to that of Leclerc.
“I was positively surprised how ready he was for it,” said Steiner. “He worked hard to understand all the things he could do with the car, which are so complex, yet he was very good with it.
“I was very surprised with his speed. He is young, but he was very prepared, and he surpassed expectations.”