Haas team boss Guenther Steiner says F1 returnee Kevin Magnussen is just warming up to F1's new generation cars, and suggest there's "more to come" from the Dane after his impressive P7 performance in qualifying in Bahrain.
Haas appear to have extracted itself from the doldrums where it was stranded for several seasons thanks to a well-engineered VF-22 that is also benefitting from an improved Ferrari power unit.
While reliability wasn't perfect in pre-season testing, Magnussen and teammate Mick Schumacher showcased their car's upgraded level of performance, and the former confirmed Haas' progress Saturday evening in Bahrain.
But Steiner believes that Magnussen hasn't even started to stretch his legs at the wheel of Haas' VF-22, and suggests the Dane still has a healthy margin of progress in front of him as he adapts to F1's new-generation cars.
"Can you imagine what he's doing in six or seven races, if he's like all the other drivers?" said Steiner. "Just imagine that!
"I think he came back in a good form, but I would say I'm honestly convinced that there's more to come.
"You cannot sit in these F1 cars and be at 100 percent straight away. It's not going to happen, so there'll be more to come. Therefore, I'm very optimistic also, looking forward, for the whole team.
"With Mick [Schumacher], he will learn to fight now at this level, which is a different level than he was last year, and Kevin will up his game because he just gets in the tune again."
Regarding Haas' spectacular step forward, Steiner said the advance wasn't unexpected given the early start the team enjoyed on the design of its 2022 car and its focus on the project to the detriment of its 2021 campaign.
"I was hoping for this, expecting it," said the Italian. "That is what we worked for and I always said in 2022, we will be back. And actually we did it.
"It's not down to me, it's down to the team, and everybody believed on the mission. Let 2021 go and concentrate on 2022. And most of the people stayed with us.
"That's now down to them. You know, I think we had the plan, and we executed the plan. And I think everybody of the team can be proud of this."
Haas was written off in short order by its critics in 2021 for abandoning the development of its car almost as soon as the first race.
But it was all part of the team's decided plan insists Steiner.
"They can say whatever they want, or they can critique as much as they want," he commented.
"I think we have got the advantage that if Gene is okay with it, that's what we are doing.
"We come up with a plan. I go on the plan and then we execute, and up to now we did most of the time, we executed very well.
"Obviously we had difficulties, as in 2021. But we know why. I always said we know why we are where we are. It wasn't like a surprise, so what the other people say I don't really care."
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