Gene Haas: "We've done better than expected" in 2018

Haas F1 team owner Gene Haas has said that his team has done better than expected in 2018, as the American team is fighting to be best of the rest in only its third year of existence.

Haas surprised everyone at the first race of the season, as the two cars qualified fifth and sixth in Australia, beating one of the Red Bulls fair and square on Saturday. They even drove as high up as fourth during the race, but a blunder at the respective pit stops caused both tyres to retire.

Since then, the team has levelled out, but they've still been a top midfield contender, trading punches with Renault in most races in a fight to be best of the rest.

Gene Haas, who had experience as a team owner in NASCAR before switching to F1, thinks that the team over-performed in 2018.

"I think we’ve done better than expected," he told Autoweek.

"The top three teams are so far ahead of us that it is almost impossible to score a podium unless they have a bad day.

"Ferrari has a thousand people in their F1 department, or even more. Mercedes has the same and Red Bull, too. We don’t have the resources to compete on those levels.

"I was a great believer that having a big budget didn’t make much of a difference.

"But in F1, for every person we have, they may have five. Apparently, the number of people you have does make a difference!"

Haas has a relatively small operation in terms of both personnel and budget, and that's why he thinks Renault should've been ahead of Haas further in the standings than they are. The French team currently holds a 30-point advantage over Haas.

"I think Renault should be a little bit further ahead of us than they are, but they have had a few really bad days," Haas said.

"I am kind of surprised that our opposition has made as many mistakes as they have. We have made a lot of mistakes, and we’re only in the position we are in because they have made those mistakes."