Breaking news
Formula 1
Steiner: Ferrari F1 engine could be “better" than Mercedes
Ferrari’s new Formula 1 engine could now be better than the Mercedes, reckons Haas team principal Gunther Steiner.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Mar 31, 2017, 3:49 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
With Sebastian Vettel beating Lewis Hamilton to victory in the Australian Grand Prix, rival teams had indications through GPS data over the Melbourne weekend that Ferrari’s biggest step compared to last year had been in power terms.
For Haas, which runs customer Ferrari engines and delivered its best-ever sixth place grid slot at Albert Park, the progress it has seen has left it convinced that Mercedes no longer has the edge, and could even be behind.
“With the engine, there is not just one area that is better, it’s the whole package that has improved from last year,” said Steiner. “It’s now as competitive as a Mercedes engine, if not better.
“Ferrari won in Australia, but everybody is developing and trying to get better. It’s always going to be a development race. They’ve made a good step, and without that help from Ferrari, we wouldn’t be where we are.”
Reliability fixes
Although Haas failed to capitalise on its strong qualifying form in Australia, as Romain Grosjean retired from the race with a water leak, Steiner sees no reason for alarm about the situation his team is in.
“If you’ve got speed, you can get reliability,” he said. “It’s not good not to have it in the beginning, but not to have speed would be much more difficult to fix than the reliability.”
He added: “We are cautiously optimistic. We need to still prove that our performance wasn’t a one-off. It’s very tight in the midfield. On a good day, you could be on top, but on a bad day, you could be at the back. The other midfield teams have shown that this can happen.
“I think we surprised a little bit with our performance, especially Romain qualifying sixth with his lap, which was four-tenths faster than (Felipe) Massa’s. That’s pretty good.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Palmer wants Renault to check car before China
Next article Female karting ace Garcia joins Renault junior programme
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jonathan Noble
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
Formula 1
Formula 1 Dec 31, 2024
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Formula 1
Formula 1 Dec 31, 2024
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
Formula 1
Formula 1
Australian GP
Dec 28, 2024
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
More from
Ferrari
Max Verstappen on Ferrari clashes: "I would never sign two number-one drivers"
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 d
Max Verstappen on Ferrari clashes: "I would never sign two number-one drivers"
What the Brazilian GP revealed about F1's ability to cope with rain
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
2 d
What the Brazilian GP revealed about F1's ability to cope with rain
Latest news
The Kimi Antonelli you don't know: Inside the Mercedes garage with F1's new world champion
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
47 min
The Kimi Antonelli you don't know: Inside the Mercedes garage with F1's new world champion
F1 driver contracts: How long is each driver tied down for?
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 1 h
F1 driver contracts: How long is each driver tied down for?
IndyCar 2026 season review: ECR
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 17 h
IndyCar 2026 season review: ECR
Toto Wolff reflects on Mercedes’ non-title years: ‘We weren’t complete losers’
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
17 h
Toto Wolff reflects on Mercedes’ non-title years: ‘We weren’t complete losers’
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Formula 1
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe