Romain Grosjean was left frustrated after qualifying at Monza following changes to his set-up that failed to improve the speed of his Haas car.
The Frenchman, who was eliminated from the session in Q1, says he was running a lower downforce set-up compared to team-mate Kevin Magnussen, but was not any faster down the straights despite having less drag.
Grosjean also states that a ride height change between the final practice session and qualifying didn’t work in his favour, as he was previously convinced he would reach Q2.
“I’m really not happy,” Grosjean said. “Two reasons, the first is I’m running a very low-downforce setting compared to Kev that he didn’t like yesterday, so we reverted back.
“I’m not going any faster on the straight, so that’s not really good.
“Secondly, we changed the settings, the rear ride height between FP3 and quali.
“I wasn’t convinced, I had to go to the stewards and so on so I didn’t really get a chance to talk with the guys.
“The car became not good at all. It’s a bit disappointing for me from being convinced I could go into Q2 [to being] out in Q1.”
Grosjean, who hasn’t scored World Championship points since last year’s German Grand Prix, says he hopes the car will better suited to race conditions compared to qualifying.
“The race is always a different story. Hopefully the rear suspension will evolve in the race, normally we pick up some rear ride height and that should help.”
Magnussen managed to progress into Q2 and will line up in 15th, one position ahead of Grosjean.
The Dane admits Haas doesn’t possess much pace at Monza, but is hopeful that something “out of the ordinary” will happen to help it.
“I’m hoping we can do something tomorrow but I don’t think we have the pace,” he said. “So it would have to be something gout of the ordinary to happen. Of course, fingers crossed for that.”
