Kevin Magnussen says it will be key to get the Pirelli tyres working well on Saturday, particularly if the sunshine and the hot weather continues at Silverstone.
The Dane ended fourteenth fastest in the opening of the two free practice sessions on Friday morning, and twelfth in the afternoon, just over two-seconds down on the pace-setting time of Sebastian Vettel. He was also forced to do all of the work in the afternoon session as team-mate Romain Grosjean sat it out due to his crash at Abbey in the morning.
Magnussen feels managing the tyres will be key this weekend if his Haas F1 Team is to have a strong weekend and back up their fourth and fifth place finishes they achieved last weekend in the Austrian Grand Prix.
“The heat’s been the same for everyone, but it’s something that’s making the tyre management a bit trickier,” said Magnussen. “Getting them to work – it’s always the main thing.
“The tyres, for all the teams, can be difficult to manage, but that’s the focus.”
Magnussen admits the midfield is so tight at Silverstone that he could end up right at the front of the pack, or right at the back of it. He acknowledges that he will need to get his laps just right in Qualifying, although he feels there is still work to be done in order to get the set-up of his VF-18 as he wants it.
“I think tomorrow we could be anywhere from seventh to thirteenth or something like that,” admitted Magnussen. “It’s very close. You need to really hook it up to get in front of that midfield, but I think it’s all open.
“We need to go through the data a bit more to learn about today because we didn’t find many answers in the practice itself. We’ll go through everything and see if we can find some answers.”
