Guenther Steiner makes worrying admission about 2022 season

Haas’ 2022 campaign was considerably better than the one the Americans endured in 2021, with the team having claimed several points throughout the season.



2021 was a disastrous year for Haas, as they sacrificed the entire season to fully focus on the new aerodynamic regulations.



It was a huge gamble by the side, but one which thankfully paid off, with Kevin Magnussen having finished fifth at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.



Magnussen was only brought back into the team a matter of days before the start of the season, with Nikita Mazepin having been dropped as a result of the ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe.







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The result was backed up by further points finishes in the second and fourth rounds of the season, before the team’s pace began to yo-yo.



Magnussen and Mick Schumacher were able to perform well at certain venues like Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring, but not others, with the team having suffered from a bizarre “big falloff”.



“I didn’t expect a fall after a few races,” team boss Guenther Steiner told Motorsport.com.



“I think in Australia, we had a s**t race. I didn’t expect that big falloff after the first two races, but it happened. And then you think, now we need to come back. It took us a little bit of time.



“Then we had again Silverstone and Austria, which was very good. That’s why I say, [it was] very difficult to predict.”



The team only introduced one big upgrade in 2022; however, their pace actually worsened after the upgrade was fitted, something which came as a “mystery” to Steiner.



Haas did end up claiming eighth in the Constructors’ Championship, thanks to a stellar performance from Magnussen at the Circuit of the Americas and Interlagos.



“Where I think it’s a bit of a mystery is we didn’t have an upgrade in Austria and Silverstone, and we were very fast,” said Steiner.




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“Then we put the upgrade on, and we were not fast again. And then all of a sudden, we were fast again. These are the things which are a little bit mysterious.



“I wouldn’t say we know 100% what it is. It’s a combination of things.



“I think once we launched the car, we had a bit of difficulty to find more performance straightaway, or the performance finds were too small to make changes to the car.”
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