Haas currently sits P10 and last in the constructors’ championship, and is the only team yet to score in the 2021 season. The team expected this at the start of the year, given they would not develop the current car and focus solely on next season. Coupled with the fact they have two F1 rookies in the car, their struggles this year aren’t a surprise. Talking to selected print media, after last week’s race in Austin, Steiner explained the team’s approach to the season, and if any form of testing - envisaging 2022 - can be done while in a race weekend, given they aren’t fighting for points regularly.

"We cannot do any testing. For testing we would need to bring new parts, but then it’s too late now anyway, and you always plan not to do anything. The focus [is] 100%, since February, on the car for ’22. That is why you didn’t see any steps in the car over the season."

Haas is widely known in F1 by its close relationship with Ferrari, from whom they buy all the listed car parts they can as per the FIA Technical Rules and Regulations - a relation which helped the team massively when they debuted in the sport, in 2016. More recently, Ferrari introduced a new power unit on both of its works’ cars, featuring a brand-new hybrid system, which is believed to give the team a significant amount of gains over a lap. Asked about it, Steiner explained the Haas team won’t be using it this year, but is confident that the benefits from it will be clear next season:

"The upgrade they’ve got wouldn’t make a big difference for us I would say, but it’s good because the upgrade they’ve made help also on next year’s engine. And the good thing is, it’s a proven system. They’ve tested it out this year, so next year it should be reliable. If you introduce something new, you always get issues with reliability."

Mick Schumacher enjoyed a stunning qualifying performance in Istanbul, which rewarded him with a Q2 spot then. In Austin, the young German was only 0.6s away from making the cut to go through to the next segment of qualifying. Looking ahead to the next race in Mexico City, Steiner doesn’t make any assumptions about the team’s theoretical pace, and says the team and drivers just do their job, getting the ‘best out of the car’ they’ve got:

"I didn’t expect us to be [good] here [in Austin], because this circuit is a lot power-dependent. We just get the best out of the car we have got, [and] that is very good that he [Mick] is doing a good job in it."

Cowboy hats, cowboy hats EVERYWHERE 🤠#HaasF1 #USGP pic.twitter.com/MZpuDgckoL

— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) October 25, 2021