Kevin Magnussen, Haas, Paul Ricard, 2022

Magnussen will be only Haas driver to use team’s major upgrade in Hungary

2022 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Haas will only have one example of the major new upgrade for its VF-22 available for use at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

The team has chosen to give the single upgrade kit to Kevin Magnussen, who is their leading points scorer over the season so far.

“In the end, we couldn’t get two car kits to the race track, so with Kevin being in front in the championship we gave him the package to try,” team principal Guenther Steiner explained.

The upgrade was originally scheduled to arrive at the previous race. However Haas’s development programme was held up as it had to produce extra replacement parts following the two major crashes suffered by Mick Schumacher in Jeddah and Monaco.

“Unfortunately we had a few delays in the development stage, so we postponed it from the French Grand Prix to Hungary,” said Steiner. “Also, with the spares situation we had at the beginning of the season, up to race seven or eight, we fell a bit behind in production and therefore we don’t have enough parts for two cars. We struggle with spare parts for one car so hopefully we can get it done and bring it to Hungary.”

“Everybody has worked really hard – the team and our suppliers – to make this happen so I’m still very happy that we bring it on one car to Hungary,” he added. “We want to get some data before the summer break so we have something to work from when we get back, and if all goes well we’ll have it on both cars.”

The team has only made minor changes to its car since the start of the season. Despite that it has continued to race competitively, scoring back-to-back double points finished in Britain and Austria.

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“As many people know, we waited a bit longer to bring our upgrade to track because I think we still have good pace,” said Steiner. “Now what we want to do is put performance on.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Paul Ricard, 2022
Gallery: 2022 French Grand Prix in pictures
“What exactly it will do, I don’t want to say because I don’t want to jinx it, but we know what it should be doing from our development. We’ll just have to wait and see what we can get out of the package.”

Their performance last weekend was compromised as Magnussen had to start at the back of the grid after changing his engine, and Schumacher was eliminated in Q1 after having his best lap time deleted for a track limits infringement. Both drivers were then involved in collisions with rivals during the race.

“We know now where the car can be if we do a good job and I think in France we did a good job,” said Steiner. “Kevin had a penalty with the engine so he started from the back but he showed in qualifying what he could do and Mick did the same, but unfortunately he was a little bit too far out from where you need to be, so we started at the back end but in the first laps we made up a lot of positions.

“I think we had a very good strategy, also looking back at it now, and we knew that would give us our best chance at getting into the points but unfortunately the Safety Car came out at the most inconvenient time for both cars so from then on it was downhill. What we can take away is that if we can get the car in the right spot set-up wise, we can compete at the top of the midfield.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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6 comments on “Magnussen will be only Haas driver to use team’s major upgrade in Hungary”

  1. Has Kevin learned to assess a car upgrade yet?

  2. I hope it works well for them, I’ve really enjoyed seeing Magnussen this season, the French GP was sadly a DNF but I feel we’d have seen some exciting racing from him and I don’t doubt he’d have been challenging for points again from the back of the grid.

    Haas feel like one of the few feel-good stories of F1 this year. They dropped who was arguably the least-popular driver on the grid and taken on someone who was already an interesting driver (with the sharpest elbows in the business), they’re more competitive than anyone expected, instead of dropping back they’ve remained competitive and now they have an upgrade.

    Haas are now the one team that seems to make everyone smile, feisty and doing well on merit.

    1. @geekzilla9000 bizarre reality you are painting there, the only reason the team still exists is due to Mazepins billionare dad funding the team, you say they are fast this year but that has nothing to do with kmag’s (I think Mazepin is faster and its bs that he was kicked out due to ukraine) so called performance but due to the powerful Ferrari PU and the close connection the team has to them which makes them artificially fast is no different to the racing points ‘performance’ thanks to their close relationship to AMG Mercedes .

      They are a typical modern backmarker team: save millions fielding a photocopy car of a frontrunner, have an early season pace advantage due to this, eventually start to fall back due to lack of funds to develop the car and cutting corners to save money(Micks car slitting in half at Monaco for example).

      1. Except, Mazepin hasn’t provided that much $$$, Haas’ car looks nothing like the Ferrari and Ferrari’s PU is in three slower cars.

        You’re probably right Ukraine was more of an excuse than a reason for getting rid of Nikita, but that kid was not fast. Certainly not as fast as KMag. I’ve (like Dan) enjoyed watching KMag this year. So apparently has many others according to the ratings on this site as well as most other ratings I’ve come across.

        I love drivers that want to race at all costs, no matter what team they drive for.

      2. Hmn Sorry to say, but I think that if anyone is painting a bizarre reality here it is you. True money has been coming from Mazepin’s dad, but car development is certainly not a carbon copy of Ferrari, however HAAS do buy the parts they are allowed to from Ferrari: PU, gearbox etc.
        You are perfectly in your right to think that Mazepin is faster, but you do not provide a lot of facts to back that statement up. My claim is that KMAG is faster: MSC outclassed Mazepin 2021, and this year KMAG is holding the upper hand over MSC. KMAG has actually developed from being a real (too) hard racer to be a real pair of steady hands behind the wheel.
        Regarding his exit: This is more of a political discussion; I for one support 100% the pressure put on Russia, Russian oligarks (in this case Mazepin Snr.) and anything Russian these days, so I’m more than fine with Mazepin jnr. getting the boot. If anything even stronger pressure should be piled on Putin. I’m not against the Russians per se; however the Russians – in my opinion – should get rid of their current leadership; first and foremost Putin.

      3. How do you work that out lol, Haas would have zero pts from mazepin. He made Mick look way too good if Magnussen can beat Sch straight away being out the sport what makes you think Mazepin would be better the man was regularly a secondd behind Mick fgs. Mick looked like the next Senna the gaps he had to Mazepin. Maz loses to Mick who in turn loses to Mag but you think Maz would beat Kmag? Lol

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