Haas F1 Team have looked very strong in the opening rounds of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season; but unfortunately, performance seems to have dropped off for the American outfit in the Australian Grand Prix weekend so far – with qualifying yielding a disappointing fifteenth and seventeenth-place finish for the team.
Kevin Magnussen, who failed to leave Qualifying One for the first time this year, will start the race in seventeenth place and believes the team haven’t found the “sweet spot” on track:
“It hasn’t really been our weekend so far – we haven’t found the sweet spot on this track. We’ve made some improvements but in qualifying it was a little bit messy with the red flag,” stated the number twenty driver.
Despite the unfortunate Saturday afternoon, the Danish driver remains optimistic about his chances in the race on Sunday – “I don’t think the result is representative of what the car can do in the race – there is more to come. We’re not starting in a great position so we’ll see what we can do but I’m optimistic that we’ve got a good car for the race.”
Mick Schumacher hopeful for race as the long-run pace “felt good”
Aside from the lower-than-expected qualifying position for both Haas drivers, there is one thing Mick Schumacher can have a smile on his face for and that he out-qualified his experienced teammate. However, the #47 driver was reflective of the session and quickly set his sights on Sunday’s race.
“Unfortunately, I ran into some traffic in the last sector with four or five cars in front of me which wasn’t too nice, but these things happen. We did the best we could and we had the right approach to this session.”
“After a poor Friday we definitely managed to bring some pace back into the car. Hopefully we’ll be in a position to fight tomorrow as the car in the long run felt good and we were able to follow, so hopefully we can follow and pass.”
Haas have scored points in the first two races of the newest generation of Formula 1, but will certainly have to try something different if they want to keep that streak up on Sunday.
