Kevin Magnussen feels ‘some good things’ are now going the way of the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team as they have a stronger financial foothold in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship than ever before.
Haas have traditionally had one of the smallest budgets on the grid since they joined Formula 1 back in 2014, and their lack of development of their past two cars have shown just how their finances lacked.
The VF-21 from 2021 was not developed at all as they focused on their 2022 design, although the VF-22 that came from that plan was only given minimal updates compared to other teams.
But the arrival of MoneyGram as lead sponsor has given Magnussen, who returned to the sport after a year away in 2022 and scored Haas’ first ever pole position in Brazil, some confidence that they can begin to fight on a more even level going forward.
“There are some good things going our way,” said Magnussen to GPFans.com. “We’ve got MoneyGram as a title sponsor now, and that is going to allow us to invest more in certain areas.
“I’m obviously not involved in that part, or taking any decisions on that, but I would assume that would be the case. That is going to help in many different ways.”
Magnussen says there is certainly room for improvement at Haas, but the fact that the team are now in a settled state should see some of those improvements come to be in 2023.
As well as additional aero developments being introduced, Magnussen said he would also like to see things like strategy calls and pit stops to get better, and he believes this could happen going into the new season.
“The team has been through a couple of tough years where some people left and we’ve got new people in,” said Magnussen. “This group needs to settle because when you get new people in, although they’re super talented and very capable, it still needs time to settle.
“That’s also been part of the process this year, to set the team and then have that settle-in period and that is going to be happening. It’s already happened to a certain extent and it’s going to be happening over the winter and into 2023.
“We brought one upgrade [last year] and so hopefully, there can be more attempts from our aero guys to put performance on the car, and then we’re going to grow in different areas. Everything that we do at the track – strategy, operational-wise, pit stops, a lot of things have room for improvement.”
