New team scored points on their debut in Australia
Thursday 31 March 2016 15:47, UK
Romain Grosjean feels there is even more to come from Haas following their points-scoring debut in Australia.
The Frenchman finished sixth in Melbourne, making the American squad the first new team to score points in their first race since Toyota in 2002.
The remarkable feat saw Grosjean win the inaugural Driver of the Day award in a fan vote, but the 29-year-old always had faith in the team's abilities to deliver.
"Since day one when I jumped in the car I told everyone this is a very good platform, a very good baseline and I like it," he told Sky Sports Digital at the Bahrain GP.
"But then people need to get results to realise that the driver's comments go together with what is happening on track. It was a tough weekend because we didn't get any driving on the Friday, very little on the Saturday morning after the pit lane crash and in the race was the first time we were putting softs and mediums on the car, with very little set-up work.
"So to hold onto sixth place and score some big points I am very pleased with that and it gave a boost to everyone who has been working very hard over the last two months. Now in Bahrain we can learn more about the car, carry out more set-up work and unlock the potential in the car."
Starting 19th on the grid made Grosjean's points finish all the more impressive and although he started alongside team-mate Esteban Gutierrez, the Frenchman feels that isn't where the car is on pace.
"The second attempt in Q1 I was up something like two seconds and it would have put me P4 at the end of Q1 which would have been really good," he said.
"But we couldn't finish the lap because of the new format. We got caught by the timing, there are things we could have done better, so it was a bit of a disappointing day. But on the other hand we realised how strong the car could be and what was possible to do from there and the race confirmed what we were thinking."
However, Grosjean says lessons have been learnt from Australia and is confident of a better performance in Bahrain.
"There are routines and work we can do and improve. Everyone is trying to find those 20 seconds that missed us getting across the line," he added.
"We are a brand new team, we need to get those small details and then we are through. Hopefully it will get better this weekend."
One call the team did get correct was to switch to medium tyres during the red-flag period in Australia.
"It is team work - we were discussing it on the pit wall and my only words to my engineer was 'I don't think we can do 39 divided by two on the supersofts' so we went to mediums," he said.
"We messed up a bit the aero balance, we had too much aero on the car but we had no delta and no information on what to do when we change the tyres. But it was a good call, those were the best tyres, I had the same feeling they did and we went for it."
And after the highs of Melbourne, Grosjean feels more points should be on the cars in Bahrain.
"We put the bar pretty high on the first weekend, so it is not going to be easy to repeat but Gene [Haas] didn't come to F1 to finish last," he said.
"It is going to be a good weekend, things are going to be hard and tough, but I want us to be proud of what we are doing and give 100 per cent and if everything comes together we should have big points."
