Haas F1 team needs to experiment more now - Esteban Gutierrez

The American newcomer got two cars to the finish for the first time at Shanghai but failed to score points, having done so in its the opening two races.

"There's still a lot to work on, it's part of that which we are missing - we need to experiment more, to try different things," said Gutierrez.

"I have to say that our set-up is still quite conservative at the moment.

"We still don't know exactly where we are or are 100 per cent confident that this is right so we can expect to have these type of weekends where our car isn't performing at the maximum.

"But the good news is that we have a good base and we'll work on it at the next events."

Despite the Chinese GP disappointment, Haas has made an impressive debut overall.

It already sits fifth in the constructors' championship on 18 points.

Gutierrez concedes the start of 2016 has been a long and demanding opening stint for the engineers and is hopeful things will improve as F1 returns to Europe.

"We'll go back to Europe, set the cars properly in the workshop, have them there in-house and the mechanics will be more placed," he said.

"Right now it's all about going up and down, everything tight, time is on top of us and for the team it's not ideal.

"Obviously the guys are tired as well from two months straight. It has been very, very tough for them.

"Everybody is making a good effort and this is part of being a new team, we will have some bad moments.

"We will not be able to avoid them but we need to address them and we need to improve."