Steiner admits: 'Haas went wrong with upgrade strategy in 2022'

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Steiner on wrong strategy Haas 2022
1 February 2023 at 10:42
Last update 1 February 2023 at 12:39
  • GPblog.com

Guenther Steiner has admitted that the development strategy chosen by Haas in 2022 was not the right one. The US racing stable's team boss acknowledges that the wrong priorities were set when introducing updates.

Haas chose wrong strategy in 2022

While other Formula 1 teams introduced their updates in small steps over the course of the season, Haas chose to come up with one big update package in the summer. Looking back at the course of the season, Steiner questioned this approach.

Haas made a strong start to the 2022 F1 season by immediately finishing in the points. In part, this was due to the team giving up the previous year in order to spend extra time developing the new car.

"I think at the beginning we were very well prepared compared to the other teams, because we just spent more time on development," Steiner said in conversation with Auto, Motor und Sport. Kevin Magnussen, making his comeback after a two-year absence, managed to score points in three of the first four races.

After this, however, the team hit the wrong track, the team boss acknowledged. This was reflected in the results, which deteriorated as the season progressed. Steiner admitted this was partly due to the decision to go for one big update package, instead of releasing the updates in small steps.

"Now I might have made a different decision," he admitted. Moreover, Steiner feels behind that more attention should have been paid to the weight of the car, but he stresses that he has only himself to blame for the fact that this did not happen sufficiently.