Kevin Magnussen believes it will be hard to improve on Hass' "really good" debut season and therefore even "just a little" improvement would be a good step for the team.
The new-for-2016 American team finished eighth in the standings, ahead of Renault, Sauber and Manor, with a points tally of 29 – almost half that of the established and well-funded Toro Rosso outfit.
Magnussen, who moved from Renault to Haas for 2017, says the teams 'unofficial' target is to make a small improvement and that would make for a good season.
"I think we have a bit of a target, not really an official one, but I think the target for us generally within the team is for us to try and improve on last year just by a little bit," said the Danish driver.
"It's not an easy target because the team had a really good season last year even though it was their rookie year. They performed very well.
"I think our target should be to try and improve, even just by a little bit. If we can do that I'll be happy at least and I think so far it's possible to do that."
Overall, Magnussen is pleased with how the team are doing and how testing has gone for them so far.
"Let's see, I think testing has so far been going well. Our feeling with the car is good and we're exploring the car and making progress. So far so good.
"We're very happy with the package we get from Ferrari, so far very good. We've not had any problems so far this year. We're very happy and absolutely no problems."