Romain Grosjean heads to Russia this week with the ambition of achieving another point-paying finish for the Haas F1 Team.
Bahrain yielded an eighth place finish for the Frenchman but it remains to be seen if the Hass VF-17 chassis, praised by Grosjean for its overall balance, can remain in contention for points in Sochi.
"It was good to score points in Bahrain," Grosjean said in the team's preview.
"Clearly, we deserved them – since race one, actually. I think the most encouraging fact for now is that the car is performing well everywhere we’ve been.
"So now we go to Russia, which was a bit of a tough one for us last year. We’ll see if we’ve made progress and if the car is working well at every type of circuit.
"If so, then pretty much everywhere we could score points."
While Sochi is close to Bahrain in terms of set-up, Grosjean believes however that track temperatures could throw a wild-card into the mix.
"A lot will depend on the temperature. The tarmac in Bahrain is very rough. It’s very smooth in Russia.
"There’s a lot that we need to think about. I think clearly we’ve got a good baseline, so we’re going to keep working on that and keep trying to improve the car and see what we get in Sochi."
Grosjean earned his best F1 finish in last year’s race in Russia when he came home eighth. The Sochi Autodrom is indeed a circuit which appeals to the 31-year-old.
"I do quite like the fast Turn 3. It’s a very high-speed corner, flat out, then just going into Turn 4, coming out of the corner, then braking straight away for Turn 4.
"I think the corners flow into each other quite nicely. It’s a good track to drive."
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