Despite spending more time in the garage than he would have liked, Kevin Magnussen felt the difficult day at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya would have been worse for the Haas F1 Team if they conditions had been more representative to those that they would normally encounter on race weekends.
The Dane took over the driving duties of the VF-18 on Tuesday from team-mate Romain Grosjean, but completed only thirty-six laps of the Spanish track and finished eleventh fastest out of the eleven drivers to participate in the days running.
However, extremely low temperatures and even snow in Barcelona meant conditions for testing were not ideal for anyone to gain good feedback on their new cars, with Magnussen feeling the problems Haas had would have been worse for them if conditions were better.
“It was a difficult day for us,” admitted Magnussen. “We had lots of time in the garage. I would’ve loved to have had more laps.
“I got an early look at the balance and the feel of the car. We’re taking everything with a pinch of salt because it is very close to zero degrees and the tyres are not performing, as they will be when the track and ambient temperatures are more normal.
“So, we’re not really taking anything out of this, but it’s good that we’re getting all those little problems out of the way early. We’re not really missing much in terms of performance testing.”
