Haas Formula 1 chief Günther Steiner says he is still unsure what sparked Romain Grosjean’s mid-season turnaround in🧔 performance that ultimately saved his seat with the American team.

Grosjean went on a run of eight races without scoring a singl🌱e point to start the 2018 season, leading to concerns about his fut🐻ure with Haas.

The Frenchman recovered with a run of four top-10 finishes in five races, including a fourth-place finish that is Haas’ best F1 result t🌸o date at the Austrian Grand Prix, which ultimately led to him being retai꧙ned alongside Kevin Magnussen for 2019.

Steiner said that it was clear to see a 𝔉turning point for Grosjean’s season, noting his qualif༒ying form in particular, but conceded he did not know himself what had sparked the change.

“I think we all saw it. If you think now, he got int𒊎o Q3 11 times in a row - that never happened to him before,” Steiner told mahbx.com ahead of last weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix.

“Tไhat is quite an achievement for a team like ours. I was just told this last race. I did not know it as well, because it just goes by you ♌so quickly. So that is quite an achievement.

“Something changed for him. I still haven’t understood what.🌳 I just hope he understood what changed so he doesn’t make a change back again.

“We are quite openly sp🐬eaking about these things, and I think he seems to be in control of it. Hopefully it stays like this.”

Steiner confirmed the team did consider alꦺternative driver options for 2019, but never entered serious negotiations given its desire to retain Grosjean.

“Obviously we were looking around. You have to look around because if ꦐit continues like this, it’s also not good for him,” Steiner said.

“Sometimes it’s not only that the team wants to change, sometimes the driver in a team stagnates or doesn’t go anywhere, or he is not motivated. Then he needs to find 🍌new challenges.

“It was like ‘hey should we look around’ and I spoke with a lot of people, and they came and spoke to me, because with a car like this, a lot o𒁏f𝓰 people want to speak with you.

“We looked around, but we never got into any real [talks]. I’m always serious if I talk with people, I never steal people’s time, but we never got into any negotiati𝓡ons with anybody.

“I think he just came around at the right time. Again, our aim was to keep him because for the✨ obvious reason, stability is worth a lot in ๊this sport.

"Thank God it ended up like this."