Kevin Magnussen says the eagerly-anticipated car concept change Haas is introducing at the United States Grand Prix is “exciting” amid a “tough year” for the whole team.
This weekend, Haas will belatedly become the final team this season to convert to the downwash sidepod solution successfully pioneered by World Champions Red Bull.
On Thursday in Austin, Haas revealed its new-look car, which includes improvements to the floor, engine cover, sidepod inlet, sidepods, quarter panel and padding gills.
After accepting it had hit a performance ceiling with the previous launch-spec philosophy on its VF-23, the American outfit had added minimal upgrades beforehand.
Haas will be bidding to add to its meagre points tally across the remaining five rounds, with the team being demoted to ninth in the standings by Alfa Romeo last time out.
However, Magnussen asserts Haas’ revised car will be more imperative for feeding into the development of next year rather than delivering instant performance gains.
“Yeah, it’s good. It’s nice to see the upgrade on the car, finally,” Magnussen beamed.
“We haven’t had many upgrades to the car this year. It’s been a tough year in terms of just finding performance. The guys have been really struggling this year to make gains on the car we’ve had.
“And, you know, I think this upgrade is an exciting one, because it’s very different. On paper, it’s not actually meant to be more downforce as such, but it’s a new concept.
“And it’s hopefully the concept that we’ll be using for next year’s car. And, you know, if it’s not a big gain in performance, then at least It’s some good learning and research into next year.”
Haas’ attempts to accumulate more than the 12 points it has thus far have been stymied by failing to translate promising qualifying displays into top-10 race finishes.
The Kannapolis squad have been thwarted by consistent tyre degradation woes, which Magnussen hopes the upgrades rectify.
“I think a big problem with our car this year has been that it doesn’t treat the tyres very well in the race,” Magnussen explained. “So, we’ll just struggle with tyre life in the races.
“The pace that other people are able to maintain, we seem to fall off much more and that problem might be – although you’re not putting extra downforce, like, peak downforce – if you can better the characteristics of the car, the through-corner balance and, you know, hopefully, the structure and the strength of the flow on the car, that could solve that issue or help that issue.
“So that’s, of course, what we’re hoping for. Yeah, nonetheless, it’s exciting.”
The second home race of the season for Haas marks one year since the team announced it had struck a deal with MoneyGram to become its title sponsor.
Following the troublesome short-term arrangement with Rich Energy, Magnussen believes Haas’ latest revisions wouldn’t have been possible without its newest investment.
Asked whether the sponsorship has changed the mood at Haas, Magnussen replied: “Yeah, it has. I mean, it’s a good sponsorship.
“It’s money – and we all know what that means in Formula 1. I think the situation we have right now, where we have five races left of the season, and we’re bringing a fairly substantial upgrade, that is something that wouldn’t have happened in the past.
“We haven’t brought many upgrades this year, but that’s because the team hasn’t found the improvements that justified producing a big upgrade and spending that money for not a big gain.
“So, you know, they’ve changed concept and they’re now finding much more in the wind tunnel and it looks much more promising in the future development.
“So, bringing this upgrade with a few races to go is a very positive thing. You know, as I said, of course we hopefully it will improve our pace on track right now but even if it isn’t, then it’s still very good learning and very good research for next year’s development.”
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