With less than two weeks to go before the start of the 2017 world championship, Romain Grosjean admits that Haas F1 is "underprepared" for the first race of the season in Australia.
But Grosjean added that Haas weren't the only team in that situation.
In fact, according to the Frenchman most teams would also be on the back foot. That's because of the tight turnaround between the end of pre-season testing in Spain, and first practice in Melbourne.
"You never feel totally prepared after testing and before you head to Australia," Grosjean admitted on Friday.
"We only have eight days [of pre-season testing] of which you only get four as a driver and one of those was the wet day I had last week," he pointed out.
"The big teams are ready, but for us there are still a few unknowns going to Melbourne. That’s the charm of Formula One.
"That said, I think we have some good ideas where we can improve the car and, hopefully, the updates we’re going to get in Australia will go our way."
Grosjean completed 346 test laps at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. His new team mate Kevin Magnussen racked up 369 more, meaning Haas completed a total of 3328km in Spain.
"I think both myself and Kevin have identified where we can gain some performance," said Grosjean. "We have some good ideas of where we can improve the car.
"There is a lot more potential than we are using right now," he added. "The car does not feel too bad.
"Both drivers, we know pretty much and have identified where we can gain some quite easy performance."
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