F1: Haas to repeat split strategy

Haas have vowed to repeat their experiment of running their cars with different specifications at this weekend’s German Grand Prix. The team ran the split strategy at the British Grand Prix earlier this month, though things did not go to plan as a first-lap collision between Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen led to early retirements from their drivers. Haas have been struggling this season to find consistency, impressing in qualifying but struggling to maintain their pace on race day due to tyre wear.

They achieved a double points finish in May’s Spanish Grand Prix, having introduced their first major aerodynamic upgrade, with Magnussen seventh and Grosjean 10th, but have yielded only a single point since that race.  Team boss Gunther Steiner has outlined their reasons for repeating the split strategy at Hockenheim this weekend.

“We decided on this exercise to get data and understand better what the difference between the two cars is, good or bad, then we can see where we can make improvements,” he said.

“We weren’t sure if the update we introduced in Barcelona was better or not. “We’re running this again in Hockenheim, which is a different type of track with different temperatures – they’ll be a lot higher – and, as we all know, we couldn’t get a lot of data from the race at Silverstone from either of the cars.”

Steiner has reiterated to both Haas drivers the need to avoid on-track collisions, following a number of incidents between Magnussen and Grosjean and the team boss hopes they can make progress this season. “We’re trying to make the tires work better for us. That’s the biggest improvement we can make at the moment – getting into the [working temperature] window of the tyre – and that’s got a lot to do with downforce,” he added.