MONZA, Italy -- Haas boss Guenther Steiner thinks Esteban Gutierrez let the pressure of starting from a season's best 10th on the grid get the better of him after a slow start contributed to a poor 13th-place finish in Italy.
Gutierrez was one of the stars of qualifying, taking Haas into Q3 for the first time this year, but all that came to nothing on Sunday as he missed a start procedure on the line, getting away slowly and dropping to 18th by Turn 1. It had looked like a good chance for Gutierrez to challenge for his first points of 2016 -- teammate Romain Grosjean has scored all 28 of Haas' points.
Asked if Gutierrez had put too much pressure on himself, Steiner replied: "I guess so. The pressure got to him, or something. But it's a missed opportunity for us but also for him, the team. These positions they are hard to fight for because the field is quite set now.
"We distanced ourselves from the guys behind us and we fought against McLaren -- it's McLaren-Honda, it's a big team, so we can be proud of that. There are five teams ahead of us that are very good and if nothing happens to them it's difficult to go into there. I think we had a small chance to finish tenth and beat the Force Indias but if and when doesn't give you any points."
The driver market for next season has opened up over the weekend at Monza, with Felipe Massa's retirement opening a seat at Willams and McLaren putting Stoffel Vandoorne into a race seat. Although Romain Grosjean is expected to stay and Gutierrez has claimed he has a deal to race somewhere on the grid in 2017, Haas is yet to confirm either driver for next season.
Steiner thinks the lack of clarity over 2017 may have been on Gutierrez's mind, but he insists there is no added pressure from Haas to deliver results at this stage of the season.
"It's not perfect timing, we all know that. I don't think we put that kind of pressure onto him. It's not like 'if you do this, you get this'. It's a negotiation point. The driver market is moving but the drivers are moving out of it!"