Kevin Magnussen is confident that Haas F1 Team can utilise the data they found from pre-season testing to good effect when they head to Spain this weekend for the 2019 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The Dane has failed to add to his sixth place finish in Australia, given Haas’ pace in practice and qualifying.
Magnussen finds one of the car’s weaknesses is with the tyres but is adamant the American team can still achieve a “strong result” this time around.
“The last few weekends have been pretty disappointing. We’re looking forward to, hopefully, a strong result in Barcelona,” Magnussen said.
“We know the car is good, as a baseline, but we’re struggling with tires. I trust, and have faith in the team, that we’ll soon sort out these issues. I’m hopeful that in Barcelona we can have a strong weekend.
“We’ve obviously got some data to look at in Barcelona from testing. We saw earlier in the year the car was competitive in testing there. Hopefully, we can convert some of the data into performance on the race weekend.”
The 26-year old was asked if the data Haas picked up from pre-season will help them assess the progress the car has had so far in 2019.
“Yes. I think it’s a good chance to compare the car from testing to now,” Magnussen added. “The temperatures are still going to be very different, also the track will have been used by other race series since we tested, so it’ll inevitably be different. That said, I think it will be good to reassess where we stand.”
“The weakness that we’ve seen this year is our ability to have good performance from the tires in race condition. We struggle a lot less over one lap. It’s in race condition we see the biggest problems. Hopefully, we can work through this issue and see a better performance in Barcelona.”
“It’s mainly the lack of grip once we’re in race conditions.”
