Haas boss Steiner says Grosjean back on form (Update)

Right after American driver hater Guenther Steiner said his boy, Romain Grosjean, was back on form, Grosjean promptly stuffed it into the barriers Saturday at Paul Ricard

UPDATE Indeed, he is back on form alright – promptly stuffing it into the barriers Saturday at Paul Ricard. That's American driver hater Guenther Steiner's boy.

The hapless Frenchman says he has "no explanation" for the spin that sent him into the barriers during qualifying for Formula 1's French Grand Prix – his home race.

"We don't know yet what happened," he said when asked if he had made a mistake. "It's the same braking point, the same entry speed.

"It's exactly the same as the previous lap, so there is no explanation. Same line, so I don't know what happened there." [Like so many times in the past, the driver ran out of talent, that's what happened]

"The car oversteered and then the nose was stuck in the barrier so I couldn't reverse the car, otherwise I would have come back to the pits, put a new front wing and go for it again."

06/23/18 (GMM) Romain Grosjean has boosted his chances of staying at Haas for 2019.

Earlier, the less handsomely paid Kevin Magnussen looked easily the best Haas driver of 2019, as Frenchman Grosjean struggled for pace and got involved in crashes.

Both are out of contract this year and team boss Gunther Steiner says there will be no decision about 2019 "before the summer break".

He is, though, happy that Grosjean appears to have returned to form.

The Haas team will hire anyone as long as he's not an American

"For me, the focus was always on bringing Romain back to the performance he is capable of," Steiner said.

"He did well in Canada although there were no points, but I feel that he regained his former self confidence. The recent improvements to the car were good for him," he added.

Steiner is therefore not ruling out a new contract for 32-year-old Grosjean, but says the matter is on hold until the end of August.

"We have a competitive car, but for various reasons we have not been able to implement it. There are no excuses for that," he said.

"We have to manage every grand prix weekend so that both cars can be in the points. At the moment everything goes wrong too often."