Haas team principal Guenther Steiner insists Romain Grosjean's lack of points from the first three races is not a worry for the American team.
Grosjean looked set for a top-five finish at the opening race in Australia before a cross-threaded wheel nut on both Haas cars resulted in a double retirement for the team. Another opportunity went begging in Bahrain, when Grosjean was knocked out in the first session of qualifying before loose bodywork ruined his chances of a fightback in the race. And at the last round in China, Grosjean finished 17th after an attempted one-stop strategy went wrong and he was forced to make a second change of tyres.
As a result, Haas only has 11 points this year and all of them have been scored by Grosjean's teammate Kevin Magnussen. But because the car has had the potential to score more, Steiner says there is not additional pressure on Grosjean to deliver on race days.
"It's actually not a problem," Steiner said. "While Romain hasn't had the results he would've liked and we all wished we had, for one reason or another, there was never a lack of performance.
"There are no issues within the team. We have a good team atmosphere and Romain will get the results he and we want. I have no doubt about that."
Grosjean and Magnussen nearly collided in Bahrain while fighting for position and in China Grosjean was ordered to let Magnussen past. Steiner said managing the two drivers is even more important this year now that the car is consistently challenging for points.
"It's not an easy thing to manage, but it's a nice thing to manage," Steiner said. "Sometimes you need to manage emotions, but I think we have good ground rules in place between the two drivers. They're pushing each other in a different place and it's more obvious.
"It seems like we could always have two cars in the points if everything goes right, and that's really the only thing that has changed. Before, there were more ups and downs and we weren't always in contention to finish in the top-10, but having a solid car in the VF-18 allows us to always compete for points."