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Haas struggling to decide between Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg

Haas struggling to decide between Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg

12-09-2019 13:28
2

Bevan Youl

Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner has said that “we’re not sure what is the best” in making the decision between current driver Romain Grosjean or free agent Nico Hulkenberg to partner Kevin Magnussen for 2020.

With Esteban Ocon replacing Hulkenberg at Renault next year the German has become an option for Haas for 2020.
 
A decision had been set to be made in September but both Steiner and Gene Haas are unsure which driver to go for.
 
The Austrian said to Autosport"If it was a clear decision it would be easy to make, we would agree immediately.

"We're not sure what is the best, he is not, and I'm not. He can always tell me what to do, he's got that privilege because he finances the team.

"He values my opinion, so we discuss it just to make the best decision for the team, not for us.

"What we've got now is not bad, but can we make it better?

"How big is the risk that we want to make it better and it doesn't go in the right direction?

"It's a lot back and forward, but at some stage we need to come to a conclusion."

Grosjean and Magnussen have come under fire from the team after collisions with each other a few times this season, but Steiner has stressed that they won’t judge the Frenchman over the next races as they know what he can do.

"That's what I want to emphasise, we're not going to judge Romain on race-by-race," he added.

"It's more where do we want to go with the team in the future? That's the bigger decision.

"We know Romain pretty well. If he has one bad weekend, it doesn't mean that the next one is not fantastic.

"His experience is very valued, but like I said it's more like a decision on where we want to take the team next.

"It is very difficult to decide what to do, therefore it takes a little bit longer.

"It's not like is 'he good, is he not good?' We know Romain pretty well, and I can see what Hulkenberg has done, so it's more like what is fitting better in the bigger scheme of the team going forward than the race-by-race result."