Haas’ Kevin Magnussen says cold conditions in Spain meant at times it worse than trying to drive in the wet on slicks, amid general frustration for the Dane.
Magnussen finished at the rear of the pack and also completed the fewest laps on his first full day in the VF-18 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Magnussen’s day also involved a trip through the gravel at Turn 4 as he narrowly avoided swiping the barriers, and was left to rue the cool weather, with air temperature peaking at 4c.
“I was going 22 seconds slower than the fastest [time] at that point,” he said.
“You need to allow heat from the brakes into the rims to have a chance of getting heat into the tyres in these conditions and we didn’t do that.
“We were expecting to survive without cutting in the brake drums, but eventually we realised there was no chance, we needed to modify it to get some heat, and then it was fine.
“But on that run it was worse than being in the wet on slicks, it was worse than that, it was on an out lap and I couldn’t stay on track, so it was not ideal.”
Magnussen added that DRS issues also hampered Haas’ programme, and said it was “impossible” to ascertain whether Haas’ 2018 car is an improvement on its predecessor.
“We haven’t tried anything, it’s irrelevant to try and draw conclusions [about the] balance,” he said.
“It was frustrating, not to be able to do much with this weather, we did some system checks and some aero mapping and that’s about it.”
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