Haas F1 believe they can maintain their current performance level as they try to chase Renault down for fourth place in the Constructors'' Championship, despite having already switched their full focus to the 2019 rules.
Team principal Guenther Steiner stated it wasn't worth developing the VF-18 any longer due to the numerous aerodynamic changes being made for the 2019 season, but would still be bringing small upgrades to the track.
At the last race in Belgium, Both Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finished in seventh and eighth respectively and with both Renault's failing to score, Haas closed to within six points of the French marque.
"We still want to go for a better position in the championship, which is fourth," said Steiner. "We’ll still try hard on that one, as we’ve done a lot of work on the engineering side of things. Nevertheless, everybody on the design and aero teams are working on the 2019 car."
"I don’t think our performance will drop off. Everybody is still bringing stuff to the racetrack – stuff that was designed and developed months ago. We are doing the same. We will not stop here. We’ll bring some smaller upgrades."
For 2019, a raft of aerodynamic changes are being implemented which will include a larger spanned, more simplified front-wing, no brake duct winglets and a deeper rear-wing which should improve DRS usage.
Haas will experience a second change of regulations in what will be their fourth year of competition within F1 and Steiner is sure his team can come up with the right package for the new season.
The Austrian added: "It’s always with a new regulation, to find the right interpretation, how to get the best out of the regulation in its first year. It’s not a complete redesign of the car.
"We’ve got a lot of good people, who for sure will try to find big gains with little effort, but everybody else is doing the same.
"They are all very clever people here in the Formula One paddock. In the end, we will come up with very good performing cars again next year."
