Haas boss Guenther Steiner thinks finishing seventh in the championship is still a realistic aim for 2017 despite slipping behind Renault in Singapore.
Jolyon Palmer scored Renault's third top-six finish in the last five races in Singapore, helping the team move ahead of the American outfit. Renault has shown a big step in forward in performance since introducing a raft of mid-year upgrades and is looking to climb up to fifth by season's end.
Haas is at the bottom of a 22-point gap covering fifth-place Williams and the next four teams. Despite shifting most focus to next season, Steiner is certain the team can move up the order in the final six races.
"We decided a long time ago that we would start focusing full-time on the 2018 car in August, and we started partially on our 2018 car in March," Steiner said. "You have to plan it well because it's so complex, but everyone else is working on their 2018 car as well. If you were to develop something at this point for the current car and you put it into production, when it comes out it would be too late.
"If you develop something now, you won't get it to the racetrack for this year. We still want to achieve seventh, or the best result we can. We haven't given up."
Despite Kevin Magnussen's ninth-place finish at the chaotic race in Singapore Haas was out-scored by all of its midfield rivals at Marina Bay, including ninth-place McLaren. However, given the team's struggles earlier in the weekend, Steiner thinks the team should be pleased with the final result.
"Singapore was one of the worst tracks for us, including Hungary. We knew we'd be weak on those tracks, and we were. We got away with two points, so we got away better than we expected to. Hopefully, at the other tracks, we won't be this far behind the midfield. In the midfield, anything and everything can happen. It's up and down all the time. Regardless, we'll work hard to achieve seventh."