Haas team principal Guenther Steiner admits it will be difficult for his team to score its first podium in Formula One on merit in 2018.
F1's top three teams currently hold a significant pace advantage over the rest meaning opportunities to finish on the podium come few and far between. In 2017, outside of Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, Williams was the only other team to have scored a podium highlighting the enormous challenge Haas and its midfield rivals have.
Sergio Perez made the most of the chaos last time out in Baku to score Force India's first podium since 2016 and Steiner believes his team would need a similar set of circumstances if either of its drivers is to stand on the podium at one point this season.
"If all the stars line up, then it's possible, like in Azerbaijan where it did for Sergio Perez and everything lined up for him and he took the opportunity. Something like this needs to come up for us to achieve that. Just racing ourselves into a podium will be difficult without other circumstances, like some of the top three teams dropping out."
Despite having one of the fastest cars in the midfield, Haas has failed to make the most of its early season competitiveness with costly mistakes in terms of pit stops and driver errors. The American team has just 11 points to its name after four rounds -- one more than Sauber, who like Haas runs Ferrari engines.
Steiner says his team is working hard to rectify the issues which have impacted the team so far in 2018.
"It's in all areas, and I think we're getting a lot better, and that's our biggest improvement to make this year. In comparison with our competitors, our car is better than the last two years. So, every little mistake away from the race car, on the operations side, has big consequences, as we've seen this year.
We're getting better, and how you go about that, the people responsible for it need to understand the responsibility, and we try to work hard to implement new processes and new procedures."