Haas to run with "emergency" package to cure brake woes

Haas to run with "emergency" package to cure brake woes

Grosjean and Magnussen retired in Austria with brake failures

Ian Parkes

Friday 10 July 2020 08:45

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Haas is to run with an "emergency" package this weekend in a bid to fix the brake issues that blighted its Formula 1 season-opening race in Austria at the weekend.

Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean both retired from the Austrian Grand Prix with brake failures, resulting in an immediate and lengthy investigation by the team.

The outcome, following considerable CFD work, has discovered an ineffective aerodynamic package that resulted in overheating, an issue not helped by the hot conditions at the Red Bull Ring on race day.

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Romain Grosjean said: "Obviously our cooling hasn't been efficient enough, especially in traffic, so we are looking at different options to get the brakes under control.

"It's never great starting a race, and by lap two you have to lift and coast because of the brakes.

"The boys have been looking at as many options as they could. We have one more emergency step in the pocket, I guess in practice a lot of focus will be on getting those temps under control."

The "emergency step", as referred to by Grosjean, relates to a package that will aid cooling, but with the car losing downforce.

Team principal Guenther Steiner said: "How confident am I [with the new package]? As much as I can be at this moment in time.

"We have done some work with CFD this week to try and figure things out, and we are still doing work, trying to get away with as little downforce loss as possible.

"I think we can get around the problem, but it's how much we will lose aerodynamically at the moment. We should be able to cool, though, that's what it looks like.

"That's what he [Grosjean] is classifying as an emergency because you compromise performance, so we will use it if we have to."

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