Kevin Magnussen laments missed opportunity following another pointless finish for Haas despite an eye-catching opening stint in changeable conditions in Montreal.
The Dane was the one to watch at the beginning of last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix as the Haas man passed 9 cars, making the most of the decision to start the race on wet tyres, moving up to P4. His luck dried up with the weather however as a slow pit stop and lack of pace on intermediate tyres saw the Dane eventually take the chequered flag in a lowly P12 behind teammate Nico Hülkenberg.
Speaking after the race, Magnussen admitted the decision to stop for an intermediate tyre came too early, dashing the team’s hopes of capitalising on their flying start, although the track was clearly in the window for inters from lap 5 onwards.
“It was looking good,” Magnussen said following the race. “We took the right choice on the full wets, but then we pitted off it onto the inter too early because we ended up having to take another inter. On top of that we had a very slow pit stop. It felt like we had some opportunity there, but we didn’t get anything out of it.
“We had one very slow [stop] and one just medium slow. I also think we pitted for inters off the full wets too early and had to take another inter which felt unnecessary. I have to look into it properly to make sure I’m right in saying that.
“It felt like there was something coming there in the beginning of the race and then nothing to show for it.”
When pressed on the team’s strategy decisions, Magnussen defended the moves, admitting the team made the decisions which made the most sense given the changeable conditions.
“I think we just did what we felt was right,” he admitted. “We didn’t try to take any crazy gamble or anything. We just did what we felt was right for the conditions and it looked ok.
“I think we did the right thing to begin with but then didn’t back it up with the right decisions thereafter. But yeah, we tried.”
Reflecting on the team’s end result following the strong start, he admitted they failed to capitalise on the opportunity provided by the changeable conditions. He says the decisions made will be analysed in order to improve.
After pitting for dries earlier than most, it did not pay off.
“It didn’t feel like we got the best out of it today,” he said. “With all the opportunity the race offered, we didn’t seem to capitalise on it, so that’s disappointing. We’ll review it and we’ll try to understand it. Right now it’s all a bit blurry.
“There was lots of opportunity that’s for sure. We didn’t get any points so we gotta look into things.”
