Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner has confirmed that the squad will stick with its existing brakes supplier Brembo for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Haas trialled braking components from rival supplier Carbon Industri during Friday practice in Sochi. However the team switched back to Brembo for the race, and isn’t planning to run further tests this week in Barcelona.
“We started off with CI brakes in Sochi,” explained Steiner. “We weren’t getting enough cooling for them. If you don’t cool them enough, you overheat the brake itself and the pedal gets long. Also, the wear is very high.
“We looked into it to see if we could survive a race, but we realized we could not. Therefore, the decision was taken to go back onto the Brembo.
“As it stands now, we will race Brembo in Barcelona.”
But that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the long-running brakes saga at Haas.
“To figure out how we can fix the problem will take a bit, but we will get there. It isn’t an easy problem to solve, so we will take our time.
“We know what we’ve got after our Bahrain test with CI brakes, and after Sochi in FP1 and FP2. We know what we need to do and what needs to get done, but it will take a little bit of time.”
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“Everybody needs to understand that this is a very sophisticated brake system. It is not easy to fix,” Steiner pointed out.
“The obvious question, and rightly people ask, is that it cannot be this difficult to fix a brake. It actually is. It isn’t easy. This is because they’re highly complicated technologies, they’re highly advanced.
“When you change from one to the other, you encounter issues you’re not aware of until you try it properly.
“Without testing during the season, you need to do it in FP1 and FP2. You always have to wait two weeks to do something. So you can never go and do a proper test and do modifications. You always have to fit it in somehow. It compromises your testing, and that’s why it takes so long.
“It’s not that we’re not working hard. Our people are very competent and can do this, it just takes time.”
The problem with the brakes extends far back into the 2016 season, and is principally felt by lead driver Romain Grosjean. His team mate Kevin Magnussen hasn’t reported simliar problems on the VF17 since joining the team.
Steiner said that the Frenchman is feeling much happier with the status quo at this point and favoured the Brembo brakes.
“Romain was pretty happy with the latest iteration of Brembo. He said he’s okay with it.
“Kevin liked the CI better because the bite is better,” Steiner added. “He just has a better feeling with the CI brakes.
“Now we need to get the CI working and see where we stand before coming to the absolute conclusion. I’ll be happy when we can check this off of our list.”
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