In last year's Bahrain Grand Prix, Haas F1 Team driver Romain Grosjean finished an impressive fifth, effectively one-upping his debut with the American team two weeks prior when he finished sixth in Australia.

Not since Shadow Racing – another American team – debuted in 1973 with consecutive points-scoring finishes by Californian George Follmer had an organization earned two top-six results in its first two races.

Now, coming of the back of a double DNF in China, is there another points-scoring campaign in the offing in the 29017 Bahrain GP, just as it was last year?

Haas F1 Team Principal Guenther Steiner certainly thinks so as his drivers have performed well at the 5.412-kilometer (3.363-mile), 15-turn track.

Bahrain is the site of Haas F1 Team's best finish – fifth by Grosjean in last year's race, which was only the second race for Haas F1 Team. Can you talk about the impact of that race and perhaps how it was even more important than the sixth-place finish earned in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, as it seemed to validate the team and show that Australia wasn't a fluke?
Absolutely. Last year, coming away from Australia, a lot of people said it was a strategy call which we got lucky with the red flag. We got lucky, but the car showed some speed, and it was proven in Bahrain where there were no lucky circumstances and we finished fifth. It was good to have this at the beginning of the year. To get there, our people worked day and night, really hard. I don't know how they did it looking back at it. It was a magnificent moment.

With all the newness this year, how helpful is it to have the same tire compounds – White medium, Yellow soft and Red supersoft – on these back-to-back race weekends between China and Bahrain?
I wouldn't say so because while we've got the same tires, the circumstances are different. The temperature will be a lot different. China was much colder than Bahrain will be, where the temperature is meant to be near 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). We will learn a lot about the tires. It's for sure useful, but I wouldn't say what we learned in China, or what we learned in Melbourne, will specifically give us an advantage in Bahrain.

Drivers are saying that with the wider tires this year the loss of grip is very sudden. The amount a car can naturally slide through a corner is very limited, and when grip goes away, it's gone. Obviously, it's a delicate balance, and while drivers find this balance based on feel, does the data suggest where this balance lies?
We have tire pressure data and surface temperature data, so between the two of them we can predict what the tire does. We never know 100 percent – that is the job of the driver to get the best out of it. We can guide him where he should be, but then to get the last 10 percent, it's down to the driver.

The amount of run-off area at Bahrain is high. Does that allow drivers to push the limits of their car and its tires more than at some other venues?
I would say so. If you know you can run off without damaging the car, or hurting yourself, you take the chance and you try it, at least. I think we will see in the free practices people trying how far they can push it. Nothing will happen. They will just run off. In some ways, it's a good thing. In others, it's not so good because while you can learn how far you can go, you pay a big price for it if your judgement is wrong. It's all pros and cons, but that makes it interesting. It's never the same. Every weekend is different.

Are you able to learn more at a venue like Bahrain because you are able to push harder and discover a car's limits?
In theory, you can push harder and find the limit without damaging the car. How much you take advantage of that – it's really difficult to establish. You can find the limit, but then if you go over the limit, you lose the lap, and that's never a positive. If you have a new set of tires on and you lose the lap, you don't know actually what you could have done the rest of the lap. It's not a clear yes or no.

With the race beginning in the late afternoon and ending at night, how much does the track change as the air and track temperatures cool?
On every weekend the track normally changes, especially when it gets colder. Later on in the evening because the sun goes down, it changes more.

What can you do to combat those changing track conditions during the race?
You cannot put much adjustability above what you normally adjust into the car. It's in the pit stop, with your front wing settings. We're not allowed to change anything else than that during a race, or before the race, because after qualifying the car is under parc ferme rules. You cannot change anything. The only thing we can do is adjust the front wing to change the aerodynamic balance.

Bahrain marks the third race of the season, and with hot and dry weather expected, it will provide a very different environment compared to the season-opener in Australia and last week's race in China. When will we have a good sample size of races to know where Haas F1 Team stacks up in relation to other Formula One teams?
The picture will get clearer by Barcelona, but what comes next are all the updates teams will bring in. How often updates come in and how effective they are will continue to mix things up. We will always chase the midfield this year – who is best and who is last. The updates this year should be significant. We have a very immature car because the development time was not long. We will get a clearer picture, but it won't be definitive.

It sounds like the amount of updates being brought to the racetrack is akin to an arms race. How quickly do you need updates to come, and what determines when an update is ready to be used in a grand prix?
Releases are normally decided by the gains you make in the wind tunnel. You don't react to other people when they bring them. You keep to your schedule because, first you have to develop it, then you have to design the parts, and then you have to manufacture them. We have set our schedule out already until the middle of the year – what and how much we bring. We wouldn't change it dramatically. You can always make small adjustments, but you cannot change your principle of how you plan to do this. This is the same for all the other teams, except for the three big ones which could bring updates at any time because their capacity is so much bigger in design and manufacturing.