Haas team principal Guenther Steiner believes targetting a Q3 spot during qualifying this season is an "achievable" aim for the team.
Both Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez have come close, both securing an 11th place start in recent races. Meanwhile their best qualifying result came at the Bahrain Grand Prix when Grosjean secured ninth. However due to the change in qualifying format for the opening two races, only the top eight made it through to the final shoot-out.
Steiner is confident it's just a matter of time before Haas makes its first Q3 appearance in 2016.
"I would say it is brutal in the midfield, which is where we are in the standings," he said.
"We just need to keep putting in a lot of work and making sure the cars are as prepared as possible, the tyres are in the range they need to be, the drivers are hitting their marks perfectly, and that we go out on the racetrack at the right time.
"It ends up being a lot of ingredients that we have to get together, but I think getting to Q3 is achievable," he added. "We just need to work on all of the above points."
Nonetheless, Steiner is happy with their progress so far, having scored 28 points to put them above Sauber, Manor and Renault and just four short of McLaren's total.
"We probably wouldn’t have thought that we would have 28 points so far in our first season, but we still do wish that we were a little higher up in the standings.
"We are very close to the teams in front of us and hope that we can keep competing and moving up in the standings. I am very proud of us, though.
"We are doing well for our first season and the team has been working hard to be where we are."
