11/03/2022
NEWS STORY
Its request to test on Sunday vetoed, Haas has now been given clearance for 'extra' running today and on Saturday.
The American team, already hit hard after having to part company with title sponsor Uralkali, was unable to take part in Thursday morning's session as an issue with the aircraft flying its equipment into Bahrain had suffered a technical issue thereby delaying its arrival.
The team's initial request to be allowed solo running on Sunday was blocked by a number of rivals, however a compromise has now been reached.
Kevin Magnussen will be allowed an extra hour of running at the end of today's session, while the team will also get an extra hour tomorrow morning and two hours in the afternoon.
"We need to make up now every day," explained Guenther Steiner. "We can make up four hours of testing, but we need to make it up at the end of the day.
"We're not allowed to run on Sunday," he added. "Because of the regulations, it needs to be three days in a row, and it needs to be unanimously voted that we can do it, otherwise we can't do it.
"We ended up in a situation, a bad situation, and we actually worked hard to make the best out of it, and now we would get penalised again, to have to run at night," said the Italian.
"Some of the guys worked 30 hours in a row to get where we are, and now if I go and ask them again to work harder overnight, because we need to work longer at night, I don't think that is fair.
"There is no advantage, if we go testing in the evening, or Sunday we put another half a day on," he insisted. "There is no advantage, we just wouldn't like another disadvantage."
Check out our Friday gallery from Bahrain, here.