Haas expects tougher season after "way too good" early races

Haas has enjoyed a sensational start to life in Formula 1, scoring points in three of the first four races to establish itself in fifth position in the constructors' championship.

Romain Grosjean finished sixth in the team's first race in Australia, and followed up with a fifth-place finish in Bahrain. He then wound up eighth in Russia.

Steiner, however, concedes that maintaining this level of performance is unlikely.

"You always hope for good results, but we didn't expect to score so many points," said Steiner. "After winter testing we knew that the car is not bad.

"Nevertheless the first two races have been way too good for us. The two most recent races have been a bit more difficult.

"Okay, we scored points again last time out, but in qualifying we struggled a bit. Our most difficult weekend was China where we had problems bringing the tires up to temperature."

"The fact that we already scored 22 points is nice, but it will be difficult to continue that trend during the whole season. People seem to forget that we have just four races under our belt.

"We are still learning. Besides, we have to begin working on the 2017 car somewhere down the road. You just have to start early because the regulations will be different. The tyres will be different as well."

Early focus shift

Haas will have an upgraded Ferrari engine this weekend in Spain and will introduce more updates to the car in the upcoming races.

But Steiner said the team will shift its focus to its 2017 car around August.

"On top of that, we have a new rear ring for high downforce. We will use this wing in Monte Carlo and on short notice also here.

"During the season we will continue with smaller updates steps, for example brake ducts and things like that.

"But I suppose that sometime in August we will stop developing our current car as we have to concentrate on the 2017 car then."

Additional reporting by Oleg Karpov