Haas already falling behind? 'Was like riding on eggs'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
It was perhaps the biggest rebound for a team this season. Haas torpedoed itself from the far back to the head of the midfield in the first race of the season. Kevin Magnussen managed to score points in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, but in Australia Haas was out of the race. Is the team already slumping?
Magnussen drove on eggs
After a year in which not a single point was scored by Haas, 2022 is already shaping up to be a better season for the American team. In the constructors' championship, Haas is currently seventh. Only in 2018 was the team in a better position when it eventually finished fifth in the championship. Still, Haas cannot be satisfied after the Australian Grand Prix.
At the Albert Park circuit, Mick Schumacher did not get further than thirteenth place. Magnussen, thanks in part to an off-track excursion, finished only fourteenth. "After I went off the track it was like I was driving over raw eggs," Magnussen complains at Speedweek.com. However, the Dane does say that he had a fun race with many battles.
Haas took too much risk
So although Magnussen was happy with his race, he has little good to say about the team's strategy. According to the team, it did the team a disservice. "We wanted to take some risks and started the race on the hard Pirelli tires, but the safety cars negated all the potential benefit of that tire choice."
Despite the poor result in Australia, Magnussen doesn't think the Haas fairy tale is over yet. According to him, the race in Melbourne was an isolated case. "I am sure that from Imola we can finish in the top ten again," he said.