Gene Haas: "If we finish fifth, we won"

Haas are having their best season in F1 since they joined the sport in 2016 and team owner Gene Haas has said he wants to keep improving in the world of F1.

Haas is balancing his time between his F1 team and his NASCAR team, Stewart-Haas Racing.

Stewart-Haas have won nine times in NASCAR this season, and whilst they are waiting for their first F1 podium, they have made significant progress in recent times.

"We’re really doing well," Haas told Autoweek. "I learned a lot in NASCAR -- it’s kind of the people you know, the relationships you’ve formed, and putting people in charge who really understand racing.”

Haas believes that a lot of F1 teams don’t realise the true reason people go racing.

"A lot of the other Formula 1 teams have business hierarchies that really don’t understand what racing’s about,” he added.

"I think they have a tendency to make some decisions that are a little more judgmental than, say, from a racing point of view."

"In our third year, we kind of look at it as we keep moving the bar up.”

Haas have been helped recently by the return to form of Romain Grosjean.

The French driver failed to score in the first eight races but has tallied 21 from the last four to make his championship position look more respectable.

Team mate Kevin Magnussen has been more consistent, having scored 45 points.

Haas is very happy with his team’s progress in the 2018 season despite Grosjean’s slow start and the controversial partnership with Ferrari.

"I think we’ve gotten into Q3 five or six times. We’ve double-scored points twice. Those are things that maybe don’t mean a lot to the big teams, but for us, that’s an accomplishment.

"If we finish fifth, we won. That’s what we think.”