Haas Team Principal Steiner reveals ‘fantastic’ gains team have made in key area

While Haas missed out on a points finish in Spain, team boss Guenther Steiner was pleased to see them make progress elsewhere, namely in the pit lane – admitting that the outfit “went backward” in this area “as with everything” during their recent lean spell.

Haas have been working their way back to competitiveness after a point-less 2021 season that saw them finish 10th and last in the constructors’ standings with rookie pairing Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher.

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Having made an early switch of focus to the 2022 rules reset, the US-led operation climbed to eighth overall last year, including their best result in four seasons with Kevin Magnussen’s run to fifth in the Bahrain opener.

So far in 2023, Haas have continued their points-scoring form, putting them seventh in the constructors’ standings after the first seven races, but it is not just on the track that gains are being made.

Indeed, Steiner reserved praise for several team members after Haas broke into the top 10 list of fastest pit stops at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last time out – Magnussen being serviced in an impressive 2.6 seconds.

“A lot of time has been spent in the last year to make our pit stops better, or good again,” said Steiner. “In the two years where we struggled, we went backward, as with everything.

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“We’ve got a new trainer for our group, Faith Atack-Martin, and she’s doing a fantastic job. She’s responsible for keeping the team physically and mentally in the right place.

"Our Chief Mechanic, Toby Brown, keeps the group motivated the best he can, and our strategist, Faissal Fdil, who looks at the analysis of the pit stop and pit stop practice, is also putting in a lot of effort because you can lose a lot of time.

“Normally you can’t gain time in a pit stop because everyone is doing a very good job, but you can lose a lot of time.

“Everybody is getting better, we had a top 10 result in Barcelona with the eighth fastest pit stop in the race, but if we keep working hard, I think we can get even better.”

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DHL’s Fastest Pit Stop Award was introduced back in 2015, with Ferrari, Williams and Mercedes taking wins across the first three seasons. However, Red Bull have racked up five on the bounce since then.

Red Bull were again the fastest team in the pit lane in Barcelona, completing a 2.07s stop with Sergio Perez and backing it up with a 2.28s service for race winner Max Verstappen.