Romain Grosjean believes his and Haas’ form around the streets of Baku this weekend will highlight their respective year-on-year progress, having struggled at the event last season.
Haas has been one of the standout midfield teams this year, though has amassed only 11 points, all courtesy of Kevin Magnussen, with Grosjean yet to score, the pair both missing a potential haul amid its Australian GP disaster.
Grosjean struggled during last year’s Azerbaijan GP amid persistent brake issues, exiting qualifying at the first stage before classifying a lapped 13th in a chaotic race.
Grosjean reckons Haas has the chance this weekend to demonstrate its progress in comparison to last year’s malaise.
“Baku is definitely a different circuit from the rest,” said Grosjean.
“There’s that massive long straight line – where top speed plays a key role – and then you’ve got the very twisty part around the castle, where the balance needs to be good.
“It’s going to be a good challenge. It’s not a race where we were very competitive last year. It’ll be interesting to see how much progress we’ve made.
“There’s a nice battle at the front, then there’s quite a significant gap, then there’s the midfield battle, where one race it’s the Renault that’s the fastest, the next one it’s a Toro Rosso, another race it’s the Haas or maybe the McLaren. That makes it super exciting.”
Grosjean emphasised that his point-less start to the season has not left him unduly concerned.
“I think the car is really good, and the team has done a good job,” he said.
“We haven’t had much luck yet. We’ve had three races where we were looking at points, and three times where we haven’t scored.
“Knowing that we’ve got a good baseline and a good car is very exciting. I know it’s going to come our way at some point. Hopefully, that’s going to be in Baku.”
