Kevin Magnussen says he has never experienced such one-lap performance swings from a car as much as Haas’ 2019 Formula 1 challenger.
Magnussen ran Haas’ latest-spec VF-19 at Hockenheim while team-mate Romain Grosjean used the Melbourne-spec car, as the squad tried to understand its recent weaknesses.
In extremely hot weather on Friday Magnussen was mired down in 18th place but in cooler weather took fifth position in Saturday’s third practice session.
Magnussen then went on to qualify in 12th position at the tail-end of the group of midfield drivers who were split by just 0.033s in Q2.
“I think the main thing that follows as a trend is [Friday] was very hot, track temperature was really hot, and on Saturday morning it was very cold [in comparison],” said Magnussen.
“And then the car just transformed completely and it became a really, really good car, then in qualifying the temperatures went up a little bit again and we took a step back.
“I don’t really understand. We can’t say we understand why that is, but it seems to be a trend.
“You just lose so much grip when it’s hot, so much grip. When it’s cold the car is phenomenal, it’s a completely different car. It’s insane how big the difference was [Friday] to [Saturday].
Magnussen was receptive to the idea of using the old-spec car for evaluation purposes but stressed that Haas still needs to think long-term.
“I mean the other car seems to be a little more consistent,” he said.
“Whether that’s cold, whether that’s hot. At the end of the day, it’s not only my decision.
“We need to do what’s best for the team, but there’s no secret I would like to go back to the old one if I could just for pure performance but we need to think a bit long-term also.”
