Haas team principal Guenther Steiner claims that Mick Schumacher’s Zandvoort pit visits cost him a chance at a points finish, but that it was actually a freak incident.
Schumacher had placed eighth on the starting row for the race, which was a record for him in dry running, and had been performing superbly up until his first pit stop.
Steiner claimed a blocked front jack caused the stoppage, and he was ultimately stranded in his pit box for 10 seconds, a situation the team had not encountered since Haas entered the sport.
This caused the young German to fall to 18th in the race at that point, and although he gained a few positions, a P13 finish will have been disappointing for him at a time when he is fighting for his Formula 1 future. The Haas team principal hopes to resume operations this weekend despite the mishap.
“The pit stop was one of those things, the front jack got stuck when the car was up which has never happened in seven years, and the one time it happens, it happens during a race,” Steiner said.
“We’re doing around 50 to 100 practice pit stops over a race weekend and it gets stuck on race day. It’s unfortunate but we always keep on pushing whatever happens and that is what we’ll continue to do.”
Haas has experienced the same performance swings between tracks with high and low downforce as Mercedes, especially when top speed is the main goal.
The team boss is not anticipating miracles to happen because Monza is the fastest track on the Formula 1 schedule and the VF-22 is unable to compete in the same manner as it has elsewhere.
“We know that Monza will not be a strong point for us. All the high-speed, low downforce race tracks don’t suit our car,” Steiner said. “This year we’re not in a position to fight on these race tracks but the team in Italy is working hard on some solutions for next year and I’m sure we’ll get them, so next year we’ll be in a better place.
“We use these races to gain experience and collect data for the development of next year so we’re in a much better place hopefully than this year.
“We always try to do our best, you never know, there could be rain there. You always need to be 100 percent, you never say this will be a bad race… If we know that it will be challenging, we are working harder.”
