Guenther Steiner admits the Chinese Grand Prix was a much-needed "reality check" for the Haas team as its first non-points scoring finish in F1.
After sixth- and fifth-place finishes in Australia and Bahrain, 2016 debutants Haas struggled in Shanghai, with Esteban Gutierrez 14th and Romain Grosjean 19th. Gutierrez drove the whole race without the aid of DRS and Grosjean's race was compromised after contact with Marcus Ericsson's Sauber at Turn 1.
Asked if it was a reality check after the team's incredible start, team boss Steiner said: "Yeah I would say so, it's a reality check but I think quite a good one. We know where we are now, it's like we always said, we will be in that area, around 10th because without the problem on Romain's car he would have been up there with the McLarens."
Steiner is happy the team had its first taste of running two cars through an entire grand prix after losing Gutierrez's car in the early stages in both Australia and Bahrain.
"It's reality you know but it was good for us because we finished with two cars and it's not to finish with two cars but to run two cars because before we had the luxury of having a whole team for one car, now we need to get used to running two cars and that was quite challenging with a lot of tyre changes, we didn't make mistakes in the pit stops."
Steiner admits the team was always playing catch-up after a limited opening day of practice on a circuit notoriously difficult on the front tyres.
"If we would have had a better Friday, we wouldn't have struggled as much as it looked like we struggled. I think the car is still pretty good, we had a few set up problems, especially Esteban not running on Friday at all, so we didn't get enough data for the tyre, so we were always behind and always trying to guess.
"Because it is a front limited circuit, yes maybe it is not ideal but we are ok. If you see the positions we are 14th and 19th -- ok that's not great but take Romain out, we know what happened there -- but with Esteban with the DRS working and he [would have] finished 12th or something that's not completely bad."