Photo: Haas F1 Team / Twitter
Haas F1 driver Kevin Magnussen admitted to feeling “a little anxious” regarding his team’s first major upgrade, which will be installed on his car in Hungary. Only Magnussen will be getting the new parts, with teammate Mick Schumacher having to wait until after the summer break.
Unlike most of its midfield rivals, Haas has yet to install any new major parts on the new VF-22 Formula 1 car this year, focusing instead on small refinements. Even so, the U.S. outfit managed to produce some really good results compared to past seasons and is currently seventh in the Constructors Standings with 34 points – 7 points clear of AlphaTauri and 15 points clear of Aston Martin.
Magnussen, meanwhile, secured his team’s best result of the season back in Bahrain (P5) and is now surprised that Haas is still relatively competitive despite this lack of updates, reports Motorsport.
“We’ve seen that we’ve been finding performance more than we thought we would with this, but we basically haven’t really upgraded since winter testing,” he said. “It’s been a little bit surprising to see how much more performance we’ve been extracting.”
“So, when you put on a new package, it’s a little bit... I’m a little anxious to see if it’s just going to be whatever improvement on top of what we have now, or if it’s a step back and you work towards something with more potential. I don’t know. It’s going to be interesting to see.”
Fun fact, back in 2019, the team’s first major upgrade package proved to be so unpredictable that Haas ended up reverting to its race one spec midway through the season – Magnussen was there to experience that in person.
“We would all love to just put new parts on the car and go whatever tenths faster, but I don’t think that’s how it works. You do unluck more potential, and the more you learn, the faster the thing goes.”
Regardless of how much potential Haas can unlock in the coming races, it’s highly unlikely they’ll ever catch McLaren or Alpine in the Constructor Standings, but leapfrogging Alfa Romeo is not out of the question.
Magnussen, meanwhile, secured his team’s best result of the season back in Bahrain (P5) and is now surprised that Haas is still relatively competitive despite this lack of updates, reports Motorsport.
“We’ve seen that we’ve been finding performance more than we thought we would with this, but we basically haven’t really upgraded since winter testing,” he said. “It’s been a little bit surprising to see how much more performance we’ve been extracting.”
“So, when you put on a new package, it’s a little bit... I’m a little anxious to see if it’s just going to be whatever improvement on top of what we have now, or if it’s a step back and you work towards something with more potential. I don’t know. It’s going to be interesting to see.”
Fun fact, back in 2019, the team’s first major upgrade package proved to be so unpredictable that Haas ended up reverting to its race one spec midway through the season – Magnussen was there to experience that in person.
“We would all love to just put new parts on the car and go whatever tenths faster, but I don’t think that’s how it works. You do unluck more potential, and the more you learn, the faster the thing goes.”
Regardless of how much potential Haas can unlock in the coming races, it’s highly unlikely they’ll ever catch McLaren or Alpine in the Constructor Standings, but leapfrogging Alfa Romeo is not out of the question.
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