Steiner: Development of car from 2023 is going according to plan

Haas F1 manager Günter Steiner spoke about the upcoming Brazilian Grand Prix and the progress of the team’s preparations for next season.

Q: Formula 1 returns to Brazil to host the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, stage 21 of the season. As you know, this track is loved by riders and fans, but what makes the track in Interlagos so special?
Gunther Steiner: This is one of the classic circuits with an organic configuration, and no matter what, the grandstands of the autodrome are always filled with spectators. All teams love to compete in Brazil and usually the races there are interesting.

Q: Brazilian Pietro Fittipaldi is working with Haas F1: In 2020 he already had a few races and this season he worked in training in Mexico City and he will have to complete the same task in Abu Dhabi. How important is it for Formula 1 to have a Brazilian driver back in the championship?
Gunther Steiner: We are always happy to give Pietro the chance to drive, but unfortunately he will not be working on track in Brazil as this weekend there will be a sprint on Saturday. But he returns to the cockpit in Abu Dhabi. Admittedly, in Mexico City he did not work long on the track due to a problem with the car.

When a national hero performs at the home stage of the championship, it always provokes a warm reaction from the local crowd, especially in Brazil. There are very passionate fans here and it is felt even if there are no Brazilian riders in the championship right now.

Q: Sao Paulo will host the final sprint race of the year and there will be six next season. How do you rate the team’s performance in the sprints this year? And is it necessary to adjust the weekend format in some way to make it easier for the teams?
Gunther Steiner: In Austria this year we scored points in both the sprint and the main race of the weekend – of course I liked it. Sprint is the same race as any other, only the distance is shorter, and not the top ten, but the top eight riders get points.

I support the increase in the number of sprint races, because if qualifying takes place on Friday, the weekend will be more interesting. But I would have liked it even more if there was a sprint qualifying on Friday and a qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix on the morning of the next day, because training on Saturday doesn’t make much sense now.

Then we would have a sprint on Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday – the main race of the weekend.

Q: There are two more races in 2022, after which all attention will shift to 2023, to the upcoming new car presentations and pre-season testing. What can you say about the development of VF-23, about the lessons everyone has learned this year and what to take into account next season?
Gunther Steiner: Everyone on our team is working hard to prepare for 2023. The development of the car is going according to plan – I don’t know if all the teams will be able to keep up with the schedule or even get ahead of it, but this will become apparent during the tests.

We started late last year due to the fact that Simone Resta, our CTO, only started building his engineering team in January, which took two months. The end result is a machine that is much more efficient than previous models and I think this trend will continue. I hope we have a good car next year, I’m quite optimistic.