Kevin Magnussen says Haas will strive to re-pass Alfa Romeo in the championship but has cautioned that the team cannot expect a miracle with its impending upgrade.
Haas has endured a difficult season with its VF-23 suffering from high tire degradation in race trim.
Magnussen and team-mate Nico Hulkenberg have taken only five points finishes this season and only one of those, Magnussen’s point in Singapore, has come in the last eight events.
Alfa Romeo’s double top 10 finish in Qatar enabled the team to leap four points clear of Haas and move into eighth place in the standings.
Haas is due to bring a heavily revised VF-23 to the next event in Austin, having abandoned development of its current concept, in a long-term bid to address its current weaknesses.
“It’s a tight fight with those guys but we’ve got to hang on and try our best to get them back,” said Magnussen.
“We get an upgrade next race and we’re all very happy about that, and excited to work with that upgrade.
“We’re not expecting a miracle for the first race maybe, and it might take a race or two to really get the most out of it, but there’s still some positive stuff to look forward to.”
Haas boss Guenther Steiner is also keen to assess the performance of the new-spec VF-23.
“The end of this spec car ended worse than it started, so we’re thankful to see the end of it,” he said.
“We’ll come back in Austin with the upgrade and hopefully it works and at least we know we’re doing things to move forward – we’re not sitting here waiting for the end of the season. We will work hard until the end of the season.”
