Kevin Magnussen says Haas is expecting to be dragged back into the midfield group at this weekend’s British Grand Prix, in the wake of its sizeable advantage in Austria.
Haas has been one of the strongest mid-grid contenders in Formula 1 this season and in Austria was a cut above the rest over one-lap, before racing to fourth and fifth respectively, comfortably in front of its midfield opponents.
It marked Haas’ best result in the championship as Romain Grosjean and Magnussen gathered 22 points for the outfit.
Magnussen, though, reckons the layout of the Silverstone circuit will be less conducive to the VF-18 strengths, and expects a tighter midfield scrap.
“In Austria we were like at least a good half a second clear of the next midfield rival so it probably will close up a bit,” expressed Magnussen.
“It’s a different track and I think we are not as strong here compared to the rest of the midfield. I think Austria was kind of the perfect track for us.
“Last year Renault were very strong here and we weren’t as strong. Let’s see. I think we can still fight with them but we are probably going to be more of a group now.”
Haas is now 13 points behind Renault and Magnussen reckons the squad’s greater year-on-year consistency can aid its prospects going forward.
“I think we’ve certainly got the car to compete for fourth, at least at many of the races but the thing that will decide this championship is consistency,” he said.
“We are more consistent this year. Last year we were best of the rest at a few races and then other times we were fighting with Saubers who were even worse last year.
“You didn’t see the Saubers straight away going to the fourth-best car [at some races in 2017] so we had that kind of that potential in the car but we couldn’t extract it very often.
“This year we seem to be able to extract it a bit more often and so far this year we’ve been able to do it nearly every time.
“We’ve had two races that were kind of off [in 2018] and the rest of the time we have been very competitive.”
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