11/07/2017
NEWS STORY
Haas has confirmed that it will try Carbone Industrie brakes again on Friday at Silverstone.
As the team's issues with brakes continues, particularly for Romain Grosjean, Haas has confirmed that it will try those of Carbone Industrie at Silverstone on Friday.
"We have a plan to fit the cars with Carbon Industrie brakes on Friday, both cars in FP1 and, hopefully, FP2, to see if it all works on our second attempt," said team boss Guenther Steiner. "If it all works, we will use them over the weekend, but we can only commit to that after we've had one practice."
Since the second half of 2016, the American team has suffered brake issues, and while the team tried Carbone Industrie brakes in Brazil, the test proved inconclusive leading to the team sticking with those supplied by Brembo.
Haas subsequently ran the Carbone Industrie brakes in the Friday sessions in Sochi, but ultimately decided to revert to Brembo.
"We weren't getting enough cooling for them," explained Steiner at the time, "and if you don't cool them enough, you overheat the brake itself and the pedal gets long. Also, the wear is very high."
"We looked into it to see if we could survive a race, but we realized we could not," he admitted. "Therefore, the decision was taken to go back onto the Brembo.
"Everybody needs to understand that this is a very sophisticated brake system," he insisted. "It is not easy to fix. The obvious question, and rightly people ask, is that it cannot be this difficult to fix a brake. It actually is. It isn't easy. This is because they're highly complicated technologies, they're highly advanced. When you change from one to the other, you encounter issues you're not aware of until you try it properly. Without testing during the season, you need to do it in FP1 and FP2. You always have to wait two weeks to do something. So you can never go and do a proper test and do modifications. You always have to fit it in somehow. It compromises your testing, and that's why it takes so long. It's not that we're not working hard. Our people are very competent and can do this, it just takes time."
In Austria, Steiner was asked if Ferrari uses the same system, and therefore would Grosjean encounter the same problems were he to drive the SF70H.
"I don't know what Ferrari uses but they obviously very similar," said the Italian. "I don't know which spec of material they use but where there is a difference is in the aero, obviously, because we have to develop our own, and it seems that we have more overheating issues than them.
"I think it's a mix," he admitted, "part of it is the aero problem that we have, maybe less air to the brakes, because we have got a different front wing, and part of it is how Romain brakes as well.
"He brakes at the last moment and then turns, while the other ones are smoother with the braking. We need to make sure that he gets a car that he can apply his braking style to.
"It's a mix of things here, but in general the brakes are the same supplier. I don't know exactly which material they use, if they use a different one but the design is the same."