Kevin Magnussen is feeling optimistic about his prospects for next week's Australian Grand Prix and for the rest of his 2019 Formula 1 world championship campaign.
The Dane got to try out the new Haas VF-19 over the course of eight days of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last month.
The 26-year-old's best time was 1:17.239s, set on the final day in Spain, and gives him a solid foundation to build from once he hits the track for real in Melbourne next weekend.
“I think it went well," he summed up. "You always want more, and you always wish you could do more kilometres.
"At the end of the day, what’s important is you make progress and put a car on track that feels good and feels like it has potential. We had that.
"I went out on track and immediately felt happy in the car," he added.
"Yes, we had a few too many issues which stopped us from running," he admitted. "But at the end of the day that’s what testing is for.
"You get an idea of where you stand, whether you’re completely off or whether you might have a good chance. [But] you never completely know where you are until you hit the track in qualifying in Australia.
"Even then, a lot of things can happen in the coming races. We have a good feeling. We’re happy we’re going into the first race with the car that we have."
Magnussen admitted that he was surprised that even with the introduction of new aero rules affecting the front and rear wings this season, the cars were as fast as ever - if not even faster.
“I think we all expected that the cars would be slower, at least to begin with," he said. "[But] we got to Barcelona and saw that everyone was going faster than last year.
"Of course I felt more grip in the car, but even more importantly I think balance-wise it wasn’t too different.
"If anything it was stronger in a few areas," he offered. "I’m looking forward to seeing what it can do compared to the other teams.”
The new rules have been introduced to promote more on-track action and overtaking, but Magnussen remains undecided as to whether they will achieve that objective in reality.
"I followed a few cars on track in Barcelona testing. For me, there is a difference. It’s hard to say, though, as in testing everyone’s on different fuel loads and tyres.
"The cars that I followed, I was either a lot slower or a lot faster. Therefore, it makes it difficult to say if it was easier or harder to pass," he continued. "Just feeling the car behind these other cars, I felt like I had a lot more stability, and not as much instability as we had with the older cars.
"I have a feeling we’ll see an improvement in the ability to follow, but whether the quality of the races is going to be better for that reason, that’s a different question. We’ll see about that."
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