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Haas: Lucky to get away from German GP with points

18:12, 25 Jul 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

They might have scored eight points with Romain Grosjean's last lap dash past his rivals, but Haas feel that they got lucky during the German Grand Prix on strategy. A rain-affected race caused all of the teams a headache when it came to strategy, with Haas losing out in the pit stops badly.

Speaking to Autosport, Haas team principal Gunther Steiner admitted that the team were lucky to score any points after a late switch back to slick tyres.

"We did damage limitation - if we continue to do what we're doing, we're still in a very good position," he said.

"Yeah, we lost two points (to Renault and Force India), but in the big picture, that's not a lot.

"I would rather have gained two points, for obvious reasons, but these things happen.

"I'm honestly not disappointed. For sure I would like it to be better, but I think it was damage limitation and we got away, like other people got away with it. And some had a little more luck, took a risk and gained a little.

"If there is nothing to lose, it's easier to take risk. We always have to balance that."

Steiner maintained that they chose the correct strategy however over a more aggressive one like Force India chose to pursue.

"It's always difficult to say whether it's right or wrong, but I'd say it was the right decision (to pit) because it was too slippery out there," he added.

"With our worn tyres we had on, the risk to go off somewhere, like Vettel, did was very high, as they were very worn and both drivers say there was no chance to get the tyres up again to temperature.

"You're in between and at the time you don't know how long the rain lasts. But if you put new tyres on, they cool down so quick and don't grip anymore.

"So it's one of the situations where we were at that point, is we could just lose, we don't want to take risks, because if we do you can lose everything."