Magnussen excited by Haas upgrade, but not expecting miracles

Kevin Magnussen is counting down the days to next week’s US Grand Prix in Austin where Haas will field a significantly updated VF-23, but the Dane isn’t expecting miracles from the new package.

Haas’ 2023 design – its second of F1’s ground effect era – has displayed on occasion strong pace in qualifying, with Nico Hulkenberg starting seven times among the top ten.

However, it’s been a different story on race day, with chronic tyre degradation issues undermining both Hulkenberg and teammate Kevin Magnussen's efforts.

The team’s engineers tried to mitigate Haas’ troubles through tireless trial and error set-up work, but without making significant inroads into the problem.

Having reached a dead-end with its current car, Haas has opted to steer its VF-23 into the direction followed by all other teams this year, meaning it will adopt the Red Bull-inspired downwash philosophy as it overhauls the profile of its sidepods, a change that will occur in Austin next week.

Read also: Haas hands Ferrari junior Bearman F1 practice outings

“I’m happy we get this upgrade for the next race, I’m excited about it,” said Magnussen.

“It’s really positive for the team to have that to look forward to, to get some new tools to play with, and hopefully we can find more performance.

“But I don’t think it’s realistic to expect miracles in the first race in Austin. Of course, we all wish for that at night when we go to sleep.

“But realistically it will take us a race or two to figure it out. I’m just really glad we can leave this behind and move on.”

Haas team boss Guenther Steiner cautioned over inflating expectations, admitting that the US outfit will only know if the new package will bear fruit once it puts its car on track at The Circuit of the Americas.

“The best thing is that we’re going in the direction we want to go for next year, and we will learn a lot this year for next season,” said Steiner.

“At least we know we’re doing things to move forward, we’re not sitting here waiting for the end of the season. We will work hard until the end.”

In Qatar, Magnussen and Hulkenberg finished respectively P14 and P16. The event was actually both drivers’ for visit to Lusail as neither one was on the grid when F1 first raced at the venue in 2021.

As far as Magnussen was concerned, 5.38km layout was more of a challenge than expected, the 31-year-old only coming to terms with the circuit in Sunday’s race.

“I felt like I found it in the race,” he said. “But it was a bigger challenge than I thought it would be, and unfortunately, with just one practice, I couldn’t learn it.

“I didn’t really find the rhythm properly, and then I kind of just tried too hard in both qualifyings, and I was out in Q1.

“If we’d had an easy Q3 car then you could get more laps and get used to it, but I was out in Q1 both times because I didn’t do a good enough lap.”

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