Rich Energy Haas F1 Team driver Kevin Magnussen has said one of his team’s biggest advantages is their lack of blame culture, compared to the other teams which he has raced for.
Even though the American outfit has a smaller amount of employees compared to their midfield rivals, Magnussen believes that this culture has come about within the team as they are so small.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, he said: “It forces us to be very focused and it is easier to stay on track when you are just a few departments in the team, rather than, you know, you have it all in one place and everyone is trying to get the best of each world.”
He added: “You sometimes get these departments fighting each other to get the attention – where one department thinks something is important while another department thinks the aero is important.
Magnussen said that Haas’ approach is much simpler, which makes the whole process of designing a car easier.
“This way [that Haas does] is to just get a package and make the best of it. You design the rest and just go racing. It’s very simple and more direct and kind of a bit easier I think.”
Although the size of the team means that they can be highly efficient, he agrees that they do lack some experience.
“I think we just generally as a group work better together, and also operational wise. On track we do things better, little things, like you know when the weather changes last minute in qualifying, they change the cooling quickly to get more efficiency.”
Magnussen said the team also puts a lot of thought into car setups.
“The team is just more efficient also in terms of the experience we gain operating a car setup wise. A lot of tyre knowledge, we are still not there yet, but we’re going forward in that area and improving our knowledge and understanding of the tyres.”
