Haas F1 Team principal Guenther Steiner says that the Haas is not planning to develop its 2021 car.

“Our goal is to get back to where we were in 2018,” Steiner, 55, told the German broadcaster n-tv.

That year, Haas finished a career-best fifth in the F1 Constructors’ Championship, but it’s been a downward spiral ever since. The team finished ninth in 2020.

Haas has replaced both Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean with rookies Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin for the new season. Steiner believed that the rookies will not hold back the team, but that he’s not expecting any major move up the standings this season.

Steiner is entering his sixth season at the helm of the six-year-old team.

“If they fight without damaging the team, I have no problem with that,” said Steiner, adding that the two rookies will be fighting with a car that will not be developed throughout the upcoming season.

“It will be a year of transition,” said Steiner. “From next week, we will only work in the wind tunnel for 2022. If everything doesn’t go wrong, we won’t do anything with the 2021 car.”

Nonetheless, he hopes Haas will not finish dead last in the F1 Constructors’ Championship this year. Last year, that’s almost exactly what happened, as the five-year-old Formula 1 team scored just three points for the season. Haas finished ninth in the standings, just three points clear of the Williams F1 team and five points shy of Alfa Romeo.

Next up in the 202o standings was AlphaTauri with 107 points.

“It would be ideal to leave Alfa Romeo and Williams behind us. But that will be difficult. It will be a fight like last year,” said Steiner. “Our engine will certainly be better, Alfa has that too but maybe we can catch up with Williams. Otherwise there is not much more that is possible at the moment because we were just too far away last year.

“For me it would be a success if at the end of the year we have two drivers who have learned a lot and are ready for 2022 so that we won’t make any more mistakes.”

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