General
Haas F1 cautiously pointing to Ferrari: "That is holding us back"
- GPblog.com
The Haas F1 team experienced a difficult start to the season at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. In two Grands Prixs the American team didn't score any points yet, so together with Williams it took the last place in the world championship bite. According to Kevin Magnussen the poor performance is probably due to the Ferrari engine.
The team was more than half a second slower at Spielberg than last year. The chassis of the VF20 isn't so much to blame, Magnussen thinks. "I don’t think anything the team has done has made the car worse at all,” he said when asked about the team’s pace, he is quoted by Racefans.net.
Haas driver sees pattern
The Dane therefore does not seek the cause of the loss of speed within its own ranks. “I think if you look at all the Ferrari-powered cars, there’s some similarities. I think that’s probably something that is holding us back a little bit.”
The FIA and Ferrari found a settlement whose outcome has not come out. Teams such as Mercedes and Red Bull Racing recently indicated that they do not accept this, despite the fact that the case is already from a few months ago. Magnussen can say little about a possible upcoming political battle between the teams. “I don’t know anything about this fight, I don’t know if there is a fight."
Magnussen argues that in 2020 top speed is still lacking, so Haas has to give up F1 downforce in order to be somewhat competitive on the straights. "And that’s all I know. I can’t even say for sure that that’s the engine. I can just conclude that we’re slow on the straights and we’re having to drop more downforce than last year", he concludes.