Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says he sees no reason for the American outfit to rule out challenging Toro Rosso and McLaren in the second half of 2016.
At the halfway mark in its debut Formula One campaign, Haas sits eighth in the constructors' standings after a strong start to the season -- which included scoring three points finishes in its first four races.
Although the team has only registered one top 10 finish in the last eight races, Steiner believes catching either Toro Rosso or McLaren is not an unrealistic target if Haas can replicate some of the results it achieved at the start of 2016.
"You need to have a target," Steiner said. "They are now eight, maybe 10 or 12 points ahead... [McLaren are ahead by 14 points] But you have a good weekend with both cars in the points you make it up quickly. We need to have a good weekend but we haven't given up on getting one.
"That midfield is so tight, if you hit it you are in front of it. It can go both ways. It's not something realistic, like if I said we target Force India, I don't think that will happen. But Toro Rosso has got a big gap now so I think we will still try to get them."
When asked if Haas could leapfrog both McLaren and Toro Rosso by the end of the season, Steiner added: "We tried to get them both, is that a good answer? No, that would be a little bit arrogant. We will try to get one, whoever is weaker, but they are not this far away."
Both Esteban Gutierrez and Romain Grosjean finished ahead of Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat at last weekend's German Grand Prix and Steiner insists the team's performance at Hockenheim shows that Haas is not going backwards but instead matching teams that are ahead in the standings.
"[In Germany] we actually showed we are stronger than Toro Rosso. In my opinion that is an achievement, we are not always stronger than Toro Rosso but on a good weekend we can be better than them. For us that's pretty good in our first year of Formula One because Toro Rosso has been here a long time.
"We were very close to the McLarens, which isn't bad. I think the position we are in, on a good weekend, we can do it. It sounds a lot but a good weekend you get eight, ten points, two good weekend's you're ahead. And normally if we get the points, they don't get them, because it's the four guys fighting for the crumbles."