Kevin Magnussen has been delighted and just a little surprised by how much progress the Haas team has made in its third year in Formula 1.
After a troubled start to the 2018 season, Haas has come good in recent races and has now finished the last seven races with a car in the top ten - if one counts the Italian Grand Prix, where Romain Grosjean was subsequently excluded for a technical infringement.
That run of results has helped Haas to fifth place in the constructors championship, just ten points behind Renault.
“I think the team has done an amazing job to get the consistency that we’ve had this year," said Magnussen. "Compared to last year where we had a strong car at a few races, but not a lot of consistency.
"For a team in its third year, I think it’s pretty impressive to make such quick progress," he continued. "We’re doing everything we can to get the results and to deliver as well as we can.
"I think we’ve done a good job to be that close to Renault in the championship for fourth. Especially when you consider the bad luck and some of the problems we’ve had at a few races this year.
"It shows that we’ve got a really good car and that there’s potential for more," Magnussen added.
Early in the season it appeared that the VF-18 didn't have the pace on short, twisty tracks. But the team appears to have turned even that around in recent outings.
“We were expecting the car to be less strong at the small, twisty, slower tracks. We had some bad races in Monaco and Canada.
"[But] it seems like we worked out some of the issues and improved the situation on those kinds of tracks. In Hungary, we had a good performance."
That could prove to be a good omen for Magnussen and Haas heading into the next race on the calendar, the Singapore Grand Prix at Marina Bay Street Circuit.
"We’ll see in Singapore," said a cautious Dane. "I think we should be able to fight at the top of the midfield and fight for best of the rest.
“My expectations are that we can fight at the front of the midfield and that we can take the fight to Renault and fight for best of the rest like we’ve done many times this year.”
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