Month: July 2016

2016 German Grand Prix – Pre-race

Esteban Gutiérrez qualified 11th for the German Grand Prix. He lines up behind the Mercedes powered Force India of Sergio Perez. In P10 and to Gutierrez’s right front is the Mercedes powered Williams of Felipe Massa. Behind him are the Honda powered McLarens of Button in 12th and Alonso in 13th.

Gutierrez out qualified both McClarens, both Renaults, both toro Rosso’s, both Manors, both Saubers and…. drumroll… his teammate romain Grosjean. Grosjean’s 15th position in qualifying was rewarded with a further 5 grid bump to the back due. A spin in free practice 3 damaged his gearbox (transmission). Per Formula 1 rules, the Haas f1 Team  Grosjean specifically, were penalized 5 grip spots for the swap. The penalty may be more than Grosjean can overcome to earn points.

Esteban Gutierrez has been showing steady improvement throughout the year. He retired from the first and second race. But he as since completed the rest of the races to this point. After 11 races Esteban Gutierrez has completed the last 9 races. Of his 9 finishes he’s got three 11th places finishes, which are his best in a Haas car. Spain, Montreal and Austria he was knocking at the door but denied. the car is proving reliable. He has out performed his teammate Grosjean in 6 of the last 7 races. Esteban is increasing his value to the team with each drive. Gunther Steiner, Haas f1 Team Principal, stated that the team will shift it’s development focus to the 2017 chassis. As long as Gutierrez is finishing races he is doing his job. But as his performance demonstrates a trajectory forward, he makes Gene Haas’s driver decision with each race. The less Haas has to worry about driver lineup provides more stability for the development platform.

And after the German Grand Prix we can expect the F1 silly season of rumors to begin. I’ll throw out my suspicions about the Haas driver lineup.

Does Romain Grosjean have Renault dreams? I’ve written previously that Renault would be his dream job. As the entire season is about to pop like a toaster over… we could see some musical chairs…

Assume Haas likes what Gutierrez is doing and he continues along his trajectory, I think Esteban stays. Renault had to adapt the Lotus Chassis to fit their engine. But next year will be a ground up design entirely new, entirely Renault. Grosjean has proven himself a valuable development driver. Renault could use him next year and I think Romain would love it… maybe i’m wrong. But i don’t think i am.

So as the silly season commences i’ll be thinking about Grosjean’s seat. Indications are that McClaren may be ready to break ties with Jensen Button… Bang! If Alonso leaves F1 .

So there is a little mind blurb that’s been building. Maybe I’m wrong, they keem Grosjean and axe Esteban… if we can stay pat, and Romain is happy, then the team is better off. Esteban Gutierrez is tired of 11th place finishes. But this time he’s got an 11th place start. If ever he was in a position to score points it’s now. His start will be critical… I think we will see Haas score points in Germany and Esteban will further his case that he is the right guy at the right time!

 

2016 Hungarian Grand Prix

The Hungarian Grand Prix did not bring points for the Haas F1 Team, but they had a good race. Esteban Gutierrez was the top Haas performer, and again out performed his teammate Romain Grosjean by finishing 12th. Grosjean finished in 14th position. Gutierrez was later given a 5-second penalty for failing to acknowledge a blue flag, and those 5 seconds were enough to drop him to 13th position.

The team demonstrated great consistency by maintaining their mid field positions throughout the race was able to maintain their Midfield positions. The team maintained consistency throughout the race weekend. Grosjean qualified 11th and Gutierrez 15th. At one point Gutierrez was in 11th and threatening for his first point’s position. But the Mercedes powered force India of Sergio Perez was just too much and Esteban had to be happy with 12th Place.

As a new F1 team, Haas does not have performance data from previous years as a benchmark. So with each race the team must begin to understand the tactics required for each individual track. Consistency is the best indicator of the team’s performance. With each race they are learning how to better develop and execute their race strategy. With each year the team will progress. But for this year we want to see consistency. Their consistency will provide greater abilities and confidence within the team as they grow. And they are growing by leaps and bounds.

The Haas F1 team is getting stronger and stronger with each race. The next step in the teams development will be for Esteban Gutierrez to score the point .  After that the next goal will be to have two cars in the points. Hopefully this will happen at the same time.

The German Grand Prix is next.

Until then auf wiedersehen.

2016 British Grand Prix – Post Race

The Haas F1 Team entered the 50th British Grand Prix weekend with hope and optimism. Race day was wet, it was raining when the lights went green. All of the cars started the race with full wet tires and the first five laps were clocked behind the safety car. The rain quickly subsided. The field pitted with the safety car and they all went to slicks.

For the Haas Team, it was not the success they were hoping for. Romain Grosjean qualified in the 13th position while his Mexican team-mate Esteban Gutierrez started next to him in 14th position. Both cars making the second qualifying round would be the best the team could accomplish for the weekend.

The first sign of trouble for the Haas Team occurred on the 17th lap. A gear box (transmission) failure for Romain Grosjean ended his day. Grosjean’s only other retirement this season was in Spain. Esteban Gutierrez finish the race in 16th position and was the last car to finish the race. He was lapped by the race leading Mercedes of Nico Rosberg on the 28th lap.

The Haas team is showing good reliability. They are continually improving with each race and their drivers are winning battles on the track. They finished the British Grand Prix with the same number of points they started, 28.

The Hungarian Grand Prix is in two weeks. We’ll see you then!

2016 Austrian Grand Prix – Race Final

Esteban Gutiérrez recently outperformed his teammate Romain Grosjean at the Spanish, Monaco and Canadian Grand Prix’s. Both in Spain and Monaco Esteban finished 11th, nearly capturing his first points for the Haas F1 Team. Though he did fall behind his team mate at the European Grand Prix, we’ve been seeing a surge in Esteban’s performance. And that dominance continued through qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix. Esteban Gutiérrez started 11th while Romain Grosjean started 13th.

At the end of the day Gutiérrez finished where he started, 11th. But Romain Grosjean again brought the Ferrari powered Haas car back into points by finishing 7th.  The Haas F1 team is firmly planted in the 8th constructors championship standing with 28 points and only 4 points behind Mclaren. And Jenson Button surely gave his Mclaren team a lift with his 6th place finish. The silver lining for the Haas Team is that both of their cars finished today. Fernando Alonso alone has as many DNF’s as the entire Haas team with 3 total. Button had two DNF’s himself. As the Haas Team pushes their cars harder towards the front there will be an impact on reliability. But this is the payoff we are looking to capitalize on, and reliability can be what turns those three Gutiérrez P11 finishes into points.

But for our man Romain Grosjean, what can we say… he just delivers. He spent half of the Austrian Grand Prix fighting off the Force India of Carlos Sainz and the Williams of Valtteri Bottas. The Haas car was giving Romain the horses he needed to fight the two Mercedes powered cars. Grosjean never gave his opponents a clean opportunity to pass and was at times threatening the Mclaren of Button in front of him. And because he was consistently less than one second behind Button, Grosjean never lost a DRS zone advantage. So he stayed pace with the competitors behind him .

So the Austrian Grand Prix is a good start to what promises to be a very busy July. From Austria the teams travel to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix on July 10th. Two weeks later on July 24th the teams meet at the Hungaroring for the Hungarian Grand Prix. A week later on July 31st is the German Grand Prix. With the Austrian race being the first of four races this month, the teams will be looking forward to their summer break in August.

So onto Silverstone for the Haas F1 Team and their fans. Our goal is to outperform McClaren on their home turf and close the four point gap with them. From there we set our sights on the Toro Rosso team, currently only leading the Haas team by only 8 points…

There are three more races until the summer break. A constructors championship goal of 7th before the break is not unreasonable. Their 8th place position in the constructors championship is safe with Renault lagging behind by 22 points in 9th place. So not only has the team already over performed beyond expectations, they’ve do so with little threat of losing their 8th place standing. With three races remaining before the half way point, the team is in a position to make a 4 point gain on McClaren and go into the break in 7th place! That may be a shade optimistic, but the luck factor does seem to play huge in F1. And considering how experienced Gene Haas is at running a race team, the luck might just continue.

But for today… Well done Haas F1 Team!!! Way to Represent!!!