Magnussen: F1 racing now 'more fun and rewarding'

F1 returnee Kevin Magnussen believes that the sport's new regulations have produced a way of racing that is "a lot more fun and rewarding".

Magnussen returned to the fray with Haas after a year out from F1 and discovered his team's new-generation ground-effect car in the final pre-season test in Bahrain.

Despite his limited preparations, the Dane qualified an impressive seventh at Sakhir but achieved an even more remarkable fifth-place finish in last Sunday evening's opening race, Haas' best result since the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix.

Assessing F1's new designs and the contrast with their predecessors in terms of battling wheel-to-wheel and overtaking, Magnussen noticed a big difference.

"It’s certainly changed," Magnussen said after last weekend's curtain-raiser. "Following is a lot better, it’s so much better and I think this way of racing is a lot more fun and rewarding."

In testing, several drivers spoke of the significantly reduced impact of the slipstream effect of F1's new cars, a fact confirmed by Magnussen.

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Conversely, the Haas charger felt that the impact of the Drag Reduction System had increased, a view supported by Max Verstappen's multiple moves on Charles Leclerc down Bahrain's main straight where the difference in speed between the two drivers allowed the Dutchman to overhaul his Ferrari rivals with considerable ease.

"I don’t know if it’s too easy to overtake," added Magnussen. "I think you can certainly follow a lot better, but the slipstream effect is a lot less.

"So if you just go on your own then the DRS effect is bigger than it was last year, but when you’re trying to overtake someone you catch them slower than you did in the past because the slipstream effect is so much less."

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