Haas F1 Team driver Kevin Magnussen was disappointed with his race at the United States Grand Prix on Sunday, but says a positive was that the car had definitely improved from qualifying on Saturday.
The Dane was involved in a first lap collision with Sauber F1 Team driver Pascal Wehrlein at the start of the race, causing him to sustain a puncture to his front, left tyre, and forcing him into a pit stop much earlier than planned. There is no doubt the incident hampered his ability to complete a one-stop strategy and negated any chance he had of bagging some points at Haas’ home race.
Although he bolted on the soft tyre at the stop, in a bid to complete the grand prix without needing to pit again, it soon became obvious that it would be impossible to complete the fifty-five remaining laps, with tyre wear proving too great. Magnussen felt the team were right to give it a go though, regardless.
“Not the best day for us, but the car was actually better from qualifying.
“We just had to pit at the first lap, so our tyres – we tried to do the whole race on softs, but it was not quite possible. We had to try. It was the only thing we could try in that situation.”
A further collision with around ten laps remaining, this time with the other Sauber of Marcus Ericsson, did not help Magnussen’s cause, when he was spun off track at Turn 12, dropping him down the order to sixteenth and into the final classified position.
All that was left was for Magnussen to do, was to resign the United States Grand Prix to the history books, and move onto the next round in Mexico.
“So, onto the next one.”