The Bahrain GP was a great joy for Haas. The moment in which Kevin Magnussen crossed the finish line in fifth position was celebrated in style in the team garage, as it meant the first points for the American team since the Eifel GP in 2020, when Romain Grosjean finished ninth. .
In a single race, the Danish driver also added more points than he had accumulated in the last two years. A weekend later, that great performance could not be matched, but, nevertheless, Haas returned to leave very good feelings.
Mick Schumacher looked capable of making it to Q3 before a heavy crash ruled him out of Q3 and the race, while Magnussen picked up a further two points on Sunday.
The move from Formula 1 to completely new technical regulations, and thus completely different cars, has undoubtedly benefited Haas , because after two years at the back of the grid, the team is finally able to compete in the middle zone.
But can the team continue in this vein and continue to perform as well for the rest of the year? That was the question team boss Guenther Steiner was asked on the F1 Nation podcast.
“Why should success stop?” was the first thing the Italian said.
“At the moment we’re not competing with Ferrari and Red Bull, but I think we can stay where we are now. The rest will come closer, but with the budget cap it’s not going to be like the old days where you spend money on development on a regular basis. unlimited”.
“We also continue to develop and improve ourselves. The levels are very even in F1 at the moment and I think that was the intention of the new financial rules. With the budget cap we wanted to achieve this, because it is much more interesting for the smaller teams. “.
“Now everyone can fight in the middle zone and score points every weekend. Of course, there will come a time when we will go back and someone will step up, like we did these last few years and now we’re back. I think that’s it. the idea of a cost ceiling, that everything becomes more competitive between the teams”. Steiner concluded.
