Kevin Magnussen says Haas’ pace in Monaco has come as a “bit of a shock” after he was eliminated during the first segment of qualifying.
Magnussen comfortably led the midfield group two weeks ago in Spain as he followed up seventh on the grid with sixth in the race, coming home significantly clear of his rivals.
Magnussen warned on Wednesday that he did not expect a repeat of such pace but Haas struggled more than anticipated throughout the sessions.
In full: Monaco Grand Prix qualifying result
Magnussen was 19th in both final practice and qualifying on Saturday, setting the slowest time of those who participated in Q1.
“It’s a bit of a shock this weekend, coming from last weekend being so good and so competitive to being this uncompetitive and really struggling for so many different reasons,” he said.
“We can’t just put the finger on tyres not working or balance issues. It’s just lacking pace this weekend. We can’t seem to find it in any way.
“In the short time, we’ve tried a hell of a lot of things. So it’s not easy .”
Magnussen reckons the bumpy, technical nature of Monaco’s street circuit has hampered Haas’ prospects but commented losing such pace was still a “crazy” situation.
“We have got a lot of damage on the car, riding kerbs, with the bumpy track, we damaged the floor a bit,” he said.
“We’ve done some repairs, and that could play a part. But it seems crazy to lose that much performance from that.
“We know we’re at the very end of this car and then we’ll upgrade it in Canada, hopefully.
“Hopefully we’ll find a different situation. A lot of the other teams have brought upgrades and a bit further down the road on their upgrades.
“We need to catch up on that and I’m sure we will.”
Magnussen’s Haas team-mate Romain Grosjean also struggled as he finished slowest of the Q2 runners, and will drop to 18th on the grid as a result of his penalty.
