New chassis for Gutierrez after Alonso crash

The Mexican was involved in a collision with his McLaren rival early on at Albert Park which put both drivers out of the race.

With the damage to his Haas car not able to be fixed on-site in Australia or Bahrain, where the freight was shipped directly, the team has elected to switch chassis for the second round of the championship.

Team principal Gunther Steiner said: "Some of the parts, for example the chassis, were sent back to Europe to be checked and fixed because we can't do it on-site in Bahrain.

"We have enough spare parts to build up another chassis, so we will use that. Then the chassis that is repaired will be sent to Bahrain via air to serve as our spare.

"The guys will have to work day and night to get to Bahrain, but it's all doable. Our spare quantity is down, but we have enough to get going again, so we will just keep on working."

No arrogance

Romain Grosjean's sixth placed finish in Australia was one of the main stories of the weekend, and earned the Frenchman F1's official 'Driver of the Day' award.

Steiner was clearly delighted about the result, but equally is well aware that not every weekend will produce as good reward at the end.

"I think our plan is working, but we won't finish sixth every weekend, so we need to be careful with our expectations," he said.

"I think we showed that you can start a new team and end up in the midfield. We were not last in Australia, which was one of our goals, and I don't think we will be last this year. How far we've come is a sign that our plan is working."

He added: "We are not being arrogant about our early success and we will have our races where we will underperform.

"Our sixth-place finish in Australia keeps the team going, working very hard and trying to do the best possible job we can. If we continue to do what we did in Melbourne, good results will come."