Guenther Steiner has indicated that he is not expecting Haas to beat Williams in the Formula 1 2023 constructor standings, with the pair locked on 11 points each.
Despite the two teams being level, Williams are above their American rivals via the count-back method due to their eighth place finish at the 2023 British Grand Prix, as both have one seventh place each.
“No, I’m not confident [about beating Williams],” Steiner said to select members of the press, including Total-Motorsport.com. “I mean they are doing very well. In general, we are tight on points, but they are in front of us.
“Our aim is to do the best job possible with what we have got every weekend to get the best out of it, and I think most of the time we’ve achieved that.
“We just need to get our base better. We are working very hard and hopefully we can get to a stage in this season that we put a big upgrade on which will give us the direction for next season.”
Haas tyre problems
Haas scored points in three of their opening five races, including a seventh-place at the Australian GP for Nico Hulkenberg. However, since then the team has gone on a barren run of seven Sunday races without a points finish.
The American outfit, bearing the name of their owner, have struggled with tyre degradation throughout 2023. In qualifying sessions, when the tyre typically only needs to survive a single lap, they have shown promising speed that suggests their car is pretty solid.
Earlier in the year, Steiner said that there is little point in switching development to 2024 until they have understood the issue with their tyres, but he is keeping his cards to his chest about when the upgrades may arrive.
“The aim for us that we understand where we need to go for next season,” Steiner added. “There’s no point to do something and then wait to find out until Bahrain, because then it’s too late.
“I don’t make any promises don’t because otherwise every time everybody asked me every race ‘When is the upgrade coming?’, or, ‘How is the upgrade doing?’, so we will try to do it as soon as possible. Hopefully in the middle of the 10 races left.”
