Kevin Magnussen was left frustrated with Carlos Sainz during Free Practice 2 on Friday at the Japanese Grand Prix, in what was a challenging day for Haas.
Whilst approaching the opening two corners after just starting a hot lap, Magnussen was forced to suddenly abort his lap, due to Sainz having poorly placed his car.
The Ferrari driver was cruelling along and attempted to get out of the way; however, he did so at a poor corner.
Magnussen bailed out of the last second in case Sainz suddenly cut back across onto the racing line, something which would’ve resulted in an accident.
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The Danish driver was clearly infuriated and pulled alongside Sainz, before giving him a sarcastic thumbs up.
It summed up what was a challenging opening day in Suzuka for the American team, something Steiner predicted ahead of the weekend.
Haas came into the Japanese Grand Prix on the high of having scored a point at the Singapore Grand Prix, courtesy of Magnussen finishing P10 at the Marina Bay Circuit.
Whilst the result was a delight for outfit, Steiner put it down to the track not killing their tyres like most venues have.
The team boss openly admitted though, that they won’t be quite as fortunate this weekend.
“I think with all honesty, it was to do with the track, a completely different layout, and our car car didn’t suffer at the track,” Steiner told media including RacingNews365.com ahead of this weekend.
“We still had degradation in the race, but I am very happy for the points and qualifying was great.
“It was good to get the point home, but the car didn’t fix itself over last weekend, it was track-specific.
“We will get hit by reality again here.”
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The timing sheets suggest that Steiner is correct, with Nico Hulkenberg having ended Free Practice 1 in P14, whilst Magnussen had to settle for 18th.
Free Practice 2 wasn’t much better, with Hulkenberg claiming 13th whilst Magnussen ended the opening day in P17.
Whilst their race pace doesn’t look promising, Haas will be hopeful of another Q3 appearance, something which has happened several times this season because of their ability to get the tyres up to temperature rapidly.