Romain Grosjean says that Haas are much more prepared for the new season than they were one year ago when they were preparing to make their debut in Formula 1.
The American outfit enjoyed 29 points last year, gifted by Grosjean who finished sixth and fifth in the opening two rounds, before a tenth place in the team's home race in the US.
Grosjean said that he could see how different preparations were this year compared to 2016.
"You could really see a difference from last year when we had our first winter test. The team was much more ready, everyone knew what they had to do. We had a few small problems, as you would expect, but generally everything was sorted very quickly.
The Frenchman admits that the team isn't 100% prepared for Melbourne, but says it is the norm for most grid takers.
"We got some mileage that was very good. Everyone was back to work discovering the new car. It went well. I don’t think you’re ever fully prepared to go to Australia with only four days driving the new car. It’s the same thing for everyone, so we have to make the most of it."
Grosjean also played down the physicality that the drivers need to drive the new cars which have much more downforce on them which, in turn, apply more G-Forces onto the driver.
“I didn’t feel too bad. But let’s put it this way, if I’d been in the same condition as I was last year, I would have been destroyed. We pushed really hard in our training. We may actually have overdone it. It’s not as bad as we thought it would be.
The cars are going to be challenging and some of the races this year are going to be epic, especially where it’s warm with a high-speed track, it’ll be very hard on the body. I like the challenge and I like to think that we can always get more prepared and better trained. It felt good as we did the proper training. The cars are much harder to drive than last year.”
Fergal Walsh
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Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
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It'll be amazing if he can get P6 again