Romain Grosjean met the media outside the Haas garage halfway through the last day of testing in Barcelona, to talk about readiness for the first race, the morning’s stoppage, and how they are addressing their brake issues alongside their supplier, Brembo.
Read what he had to say below:
On how the test has gone and how well prepared he feels for Melbourne:
“Pretty much as every year, not prepared! We’ve got only 8 days, 4 days in the car plus the wet day this year, and the new regulations, it’s very tricky to find out the best things. The big team are pretty much ready, whilst there’s still a bit of unknown going to Australia, that’s the charm of Formula 1.”
On what areas they may be lacking in:
“I think we’ve got some good ideas of where we can improve the car. Hopefully, with the updates we get in Australia, things are going to go our way. Both drivers, we have pretty much identified where we can gain some quite easy performance.”
On the Day 4 stoppage on track:
“We had a sensor issue, so basically, the car came back, made a default on the steering wheel and got back out.”
On Turn 10 – seemingly proving tricky for both drivers:
“I think it’s clearly one of the areas we have identified and we can improve -low-speedd corners. That’s going to be the key before Australia, trying to get the best from the car in those places, and we’ve got some updates coming, and hopefully that’s going to work well. Again, if we get as well better control of the brakes, that’s going to help us, so we are working very hard with Brembo to find solutions.”
Can they resolve the brake issues?
“It’s not wondrous. I don’t know, we are working hard with Brembo trying to solve the issue, but yeah, I’m not 100% confident and happy with the brake feeling, and the retardation, and the modulation, so we are really trying to work hard with everyone on board to get the best out of it.
On confidence with the brake issue, especially as the cars are going faster:
“Whenever you do a qualifying lap, or you push yourself, you forget a bit the confidence side and you just go for it. Over the race, over 66 laps in Barcelona for example, I think a better feeling and a better control is going to be key to gaining a few seconds at the end of the race.”
