Much like pre-season testing, when Haas got off to a strong start but subsequently appeared to disintegrate, so this season saw the American newbies scored points in the opening two races before slipping into midfield obscurity.

Team boss Guenther Steiner however, insists that not only will the team return to its point scoring ways, but has gained the respect of its rivals.

"Melbourne was a dream result," admitted the Italian in an interview with the official F1 website, "something you would not have bet a penny on! But Gene (Haas) knows that it is not easy, he has been involved with motorsport so long that he has no illusions.

"Some investors might have taken the first two races as the standard, and everything else as a failure, but not Gene. And that helps a lot. Probably you even have to fall back sometimes to really realize how difficult this environment is.

Asked what 'went wrong', following those two races, Steiner says: "Well, we probably suffered from the limited testing that we have. We are a new team and have the same amount of test days like all the other established teams. We have no database to fall back on.

"Then take, for example, the Monaco race. The car was performing really well on intermediate tyres, but the moment we put the dry tyres on the tyres got too cold. We could not get the tyres to work any longer.

"We know the problem, but we've found no solution yet. I think cooler temperatures don't play to our advantage - like in China, and in Monaco where it was raining and the track was cold - and recently in Montreal.

"The temperature issue is no excuse," he admitted, "it is what it is. When people ask me what do you want if you could go back in time, the immediate answer: more testing. Probably four days more than the rest."

Asked about the weaknesses of the VF-16, he admitted: "The weakest point is always not having enough downforce, that is the 'sickness' in the paddock! With more downforce everything works better.

"Other than that I don't see that we have one particular weak point. We have a pretty well-balanced car if we get the tyres to work - and we have a good engine. If we get out of the car what it is able to do, we are pretty much on the 'sunny side'!

"We should get the (Ferrari) engine upgrade at Silverstone," he revealed. "My information is that we get it at the same time as Sauber. And, of course, there are always new bits and pieces at pretty much every race.

"Of course, we also will shift our resources at some point to the 2017 car, but right now it is important for us to establish Haas in the pecking order.

"We've finished twice in P11," he continued, "that is just one position out of the points. Of course the points from the beginning of the season were fantastic, but we are convinced that they will not be the only ones we'll score this season.

"We did have some challenging races with Russia and China where we couldn't get the tyres to work, but we are still very positive. We are not last! We are still in the midfield and that is a huge achievement for a team starting from scratch. We know that if we have a super race we always can be in the points, probably not finishing in P6, but in the points.

"We are still mingling with the Force Indias, the Williams and the Toro Rossos," he added. "And, of course, we want to stay there. I think we have gained the respect of everybody in the paddock, and that was another thing that we wanted to achieve.

"The worst thing would have been to become an embarrassment."