Steiner downbeat over Haas chances against Williams

Haas boss Guenther Steiner is downbeat over his squad's chances of beating Williams to seventh place in the 2023 Constructors' Championship.

The team has endured a tricky season as the VF-23 has suffered from tyre wear problems, with an upgrade package on the way to try and rectify the issue that has plagued Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.

Prior to the Dutch Grand Prix, both teams had 11 points to their names, but an eighth and seventh for Alexander Albon at Zandvoort and in the Italian GP has propelled Williams to 21 points.

Haas has not scored a Grand Prix point since Magnussen was 10th in Miami, although Hulkenberg did pick up three in the Austria Sprint, and Steiner is not confident the package is good enough to keep tabs with the FW45.

Steiner's concern

"No, I’m not confident," Steiner told media including RacingNews365 before the Dutch GP when both teams were equal on 11 points, but Williams ahead on countback.

"They are doing very well, they’re in front of us. Our aim is to do the best job possible with what we have got every weekend, and to get the best out of it.

"Most of the time, we have achieved it, but we just need to get our pace better.

"We are working very hard and hopefully we can get to a stage in this season that we put a big upgrade on the car that will give us the direction for next season. That is the aim for us, that we understand where we need to go for next season.

"It’s no point to do something, going in a direction and then waiting to find out until Bahrain – because then it’s again too late, that is one of the aims of doing it now.

"Obviously time is now an issue because there are [eight] races left and only four months in the calendar year – or three months of racing, so we are trying to do our best, and everybody is working very hard in Italy on this.

"Everybody is on it, we need to fix this and we are positive about it.

"Even if we don't achieve what we want to achieve, I think we need to make a step towards what we want to be in the future, even if the result is not immediately a positive one, at least we know what is possible and can build on that."