The American-owned team finished ninth in the constructors’ championship that year, with its hopes not being bolstered by engine supplier Ferrari, who saw a regression in power.
Since F1 rules mean teams will have to take over their cars for 2021, Steiner admits there won’t be any dramatic progress in the winter.
However, he does hint at some hopes that a new engine Ferrari is producing might at least give it a chance to move forward.
“I know it will be difficult again,” Steiner said about 2021. “It’s just how difficult it is – and I don’t know that yet.
“But there are many factors that are beyond my control and beyond my control, and I hope those factors – I know what we’re talking about here – I hope they get better.
“Of course we have to work on our side too, a lot of work. We’ll try to do the best we can in the short time we have. That’s the only thing I can do at the moment and hopefully someone else will add something “also to the party.”
To keep costs down, Haas didn’t make any major upgrades to its car in 2020, which caused its competitiveness to wane over the year as others made steps forward.
For the next year, however, she is aiming for some developments that should allow her to move forward at least a little. However, Steiner says it is not easy to predict how much progress the team can make in 2021.
“We’re working hard on it,” added Steiner. “It’s hard to tell because we started development maybe three or four months ago. It’s not that the other people developed a lot, we just didn’t have open development because we had to manage budgets and resources.
“We did very well when we had to manage resources and budgets, so I hope we can return to those times.
“But next year it will be difficult because we are not developing from a car that is very competitive. The reality is that we” [will] Just find out when we test in Barcelona and then in Australia when we do the first qualifying.
“We’re trying to do our best, but I don’t want to make promises of how great it will be because I don’t think it will be that great. But as always, you try to do your best and you hope you can do some of that again can make up for what you lost before. “
