Kevin Magnussen has spoken out about the increased physical nature of the 2017 Formula 1 cars after his first two days of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last week.
The Dane, who has switched from the Renault Sport Formula 1 Team to the Haas F1 Team in 2017, admitted that the increased downforce levels and mechanical grip levels have made cornering speeds much faster, and as a result it was his neck muscles that he felt were taking a pounding.
“Yeah it’s tough, especially I found under braking it’s pretty hard on your neck,” said Magnussen on f1i.com. “But I got through it, and it’s good to know where we need to work on.”
Magnussen has praised his new team for the way that they’ve work they’ve done ahead of the new season, and feels the VF-17 has given him confidence that he could have a strong year.
“It’s a really well organised team,” added Magnussen. “We have a good bunch of guys here, good engineers, designers, and Dallara is doing a good job. Really, really, really impressed with them. They stepped up their game.
“I wasn’t here last year obviously so I can’t tell really how they did then, but you know the job they’ve done this year with the quality of the car and the component and the chassis is very nice.”
