Haas need to focus on extracting more rear downforce to increase the performance of their car according to Romain Grosjean.

The American team have had a torrid season, with a car that appears to be strong over one lap, but struggles to remain competitive over the course of the race.

That has seen both drivers struggle in recent races with Grosjean finishing 11th in Singapore while his team-mate Kevin Magnussen was the last classified finisher in 17th.

Grosjean reverted back to the Melbourne spec car for Singapore and will retain it for Russia, while Magnussen will also go back to the original car this weekend, in order to try and recoup some performance.

But while they are still learning what the root cause of their issues are, Grosjean feels his car is lacking rear downforce and that they need to focus in that area at Russia in order to get their tyres in the right operating window.

“We need to understand why the new package wasn’t giving us the rear downforce that we want and expect.” commented Grosjean.

“If we get the rear downforce, then we should be able to generate the temperatures.

“Also, the consistency through the corner on a low-grip circuit is very important.

“If we get to that point, where we get the consistency from the chassis and the aerodynamics and the downforce to generate the grip with the tires, that’s what you want to get in Sochi.”

This difficult period is a new experience for Haas with the American team over-performing since they joined Formula 1 in 2016, but Magnussen is confident they can overcome their troubles, and that it will benefit the team in the long run.

“It’s a really valuable learning experience.” added the Dane.

“There’s no secret that we’d all prefer to be running at the front and fighting for points every weekend getting great results [but] we’re not currently there or in that position.

“It’s interesting to be part of the process in getting out of our current situation.

“I’m really looking forward, and I believe we will get back to the strong form the team’s shown from the last three years.”