Haas team principal Guenther Steiner believes new Formula 1 teams should be granted additional pre-season test days to allow them to understand their car and the sport better to avoid any costly mistakes later in the season.
Whilst Haas has enjoyed a great opening two races to its season, scoring 18 points and placing fifth in the standings, they failed to find the right setup for China – which Steiner blamed on failing to understand their car due to the limited practice time available – which meant Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez struggled for pace and finished outside of the points.
Steiner reckons an extra few days of testing would only be fair for a new team which is going up against vastly more experienced rivals.
"As a new team, I would want an opportunity to test a few more days than the other teams," he said. "Give the new teams a freebie with three or more days of testing to get to know the car better, to get the team working better together so you can avoid the small mistakes you make early on that sometimes have big consequences."
The Italian insists additional test time would purely be used to better prepare the team, rather than trying to find extra performance, but admits it's "wishful thinking".
"It’s more about the team working together and getting to know the car better than trying to invent something new," he added.
"If you have one new piece of equipment, you have very little time during the weekend to get the team together and know what to look for and really jell together. It’s not about going faster. It’s about not making mistakes so you don’t go slower.
"In general, it would be nice to have a few more days of testing. It’s wishful thinking, but knowing what I know now would have helped avoid the problems we had in China."
