Haas F1 Team technical director Guenther Steiner says their aim must be to get in the points with their newly launched VF-16 car, a goal he believes is achievable in their debut season.
It's a feat neither Virgin, Caterham or HRT achieved in their debut seasons – in fact only Virgin (Marussia) has managed to score points since joining the grid, but it took until its fifth season at the Monaco Grand Prix thanks to Jules Bianchi.
Haas has gone about their F1 introduction rather differently, striking up a technical partnership with Ferrari which not only allows the use of its power unit and drivetrain, but its wind tunnel and other facilities.
Steiner is therefore hopeful of achieving points in their debut season: "Our goal with this car is to score points," he said.
"First, we need to go out there and show that we can do the job, that we can finish races, that we are respected by the fans and other teams in the paddock. Then, we want to score points. That is the ultimate goal."
Speaking about the development of the car, which has been done in partnership with Dallara, Steiner explained that much of what they've done has been influenced by what other teams have done.
"We’re a new team, so we looked at what the successful teams were doing to give us a baseline of the direction we needed to go with our design," he added.
"We have very experienced designers who worked hard to develop all the little things from an aerodynamic perspective that, collectively, add up to a lot. And our technical partner, Ferrari, provided our power unit, and that really defined the rear end of the car and how big it needed to be."
