On his returning following a race suspension for the Azerbaijan GP, Kevin Magnussen did not enjoy the same success Ollie Bearman had in Baku, failing to finish the race after suffering a puncture in the closing stages.
This is Magnussen’s second retirement of the season, the first one coming in Monaco. Having been one of four cars to opt for the hard tyre at the start of the race, the Dane ended up struggling in the first stint as the cars around him were on the medium compound with far more grip.
“No, it’s not good, I mean the people on the softer tyres have a better start and they also can attack better in the first corners where everyone slows together.
“But I didn’t lose too much, I stayed where I was.”
Even with the most durable of the available tyres, Magnussen was complaining throughout the race about the rear of his Haas car sliding around, citing the option to choose the hards as a mistake.
“Yeah, we just weren’t good on the hards, we were sliding around and we weren’t able to make it last as long as we had to.
“So, it was kind of compromised already then, the race of course, but doing that strategy was kind of our only chance of getting a little bit forward.”
This problem would eventually come back to bite him later in the race as he picked up a puncture after making contact with the wall on the outside of turn 5, and the 31-year-old was left to limp round the rest of the lap at a pedestrian pace, bringing an end to any chance he had of salvaging his race.
“Yeah, some spots on the track, I guess it’s rough. And you can cut the tyre, that was me.”
Even with the poor result, Magnussen remains optimistic about his Haas team’s chances of achieving 6th place in the Constructors’ Championship. Nico Hülkenberg’s scored two valuable points at Marina Bay, taking them to four overall over the last three events.
The American team currently sit 7th, only three points behind RB, and they are a healthy chunk of 15 points ahead of Williams.
“I think it’s exciting and I think at the moment recently we’ve been stronger than them, so I think we ought to take the fight.
“Williams look stronger probably than what we do right now, at least in qualifying, and in the races we tend to catch up.
“Let’s see, next race we have an upgrade and hopefully that will work for us.”
Regarding updates coming at Austin, the Danish driver says Haas has focused on smaller updates this year as they look to continue to improve the package. The one brought to Silverstone was a big success.
“I hope so [that it’s a decent step].
“I mean this year we kind of had a different approach with putting things on the car that don’t look big, but putting more emphasis on making sure we make a step forward rather than focusing on making a huge leap.
“So hopefully it will just be a small step, I think that’s seemed to work well this year.”
