Kevin Magnussen, Haas, Hungaroring, 2018

Haas right not to waste money on test – Magnussen

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: Kevin Magnussen backs Haas’s decision to skip this week’s Formula 1 test at the Hungaroring.

What they say

Magnussen backed the view of team principal Guenther Steiner who said they had too little to gain from going testing:

I don’t think we have much to test anyway. In that case it’s a waste of money if you don’t have everything to learn. Of course you can always learn but you have to balance up how much you learn versus how much you spend and we could just spend that money better in our situation.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Oliver Rowland, Williams, Hungaroring
Do F1’s 2019 wings look the part?
@GechiChan likes the look of F1’s new front wings:

They look better than current gen. The larger width suits these wide cars better, and the simplified “gills” look nicer, more streamlined and minimalist. Although i was expecting a bigger change that simplifies them a lot more, but maybe this is a just the first proposal of the new wing.
@GechiChan

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On this day in F1

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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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36 comments on “Haas right not to waste money on test – Magnussen”

  1. Kag is right, plus Ferrari is there, they can help out those guys surely

    1. If you don’t build or design your own car, I don’t see what you can learn from testing.

      Ferrari should just handover their testing results from last year’s car along with a few new updates for Haas.

      1. Not much can be retrieved from last years cars on different build chassis, to new aero parts for 2019 rules….
        What I hear Hass say, they dont have much parts for 2019 ready, and being smallest team on grid they prioritize their effort. So far they did that quite well.
        Besides, the legal parts Hass buy from Ferrari, they at least they pay for them, while others seems its more “fair” to go grid photo-copy and produce inhouse with no invoice overhead, internal developing…
        Its not like all other teams develope everything themselfes, having kindergardens growing up own engineers with no skills or any relevant know how obtained from companies outside team. What they basically do differently is they just hire the already clever guys with skills from competitors, subsuppliers ect. and produce parts paying montly paychecks instead of invoices from subsuplier. Maybee some of them even use external consultants or have relevant technical meetings with subsuppliers…. So what is inside, what is outside, not easy, but only when Hass is quick it has been a problem. Not many if any cared to comment rules upfront.. It was as I understand it a way to reduce cost for smaller teams.
        Internal / external: The Mercedes engine, I think was build outside own department, until purchased, are those clever people from Mercedes or previosly subsupliers now on paycheck with no invoice overhead?. So internal developement or external, now internal for sure as the guy wear Mercedes working clothes.
        Racing is pretty much using rules to the limit, and it seems Hass are doing so in a sporting manner, and NOT behaving very unsportly like Reneault, McLaren, Williams blocking FI to continue. Hass do this even though FI has been picking a LOT on Hass for buying more parts from Ferrari than they buy themselfes from Mercedes. FI would still have been a midfield frontrunner if not for the ongoing issues regarding economy relying on non taxed funding, they have build up skills and teamspirit, that McL for sure is lacking during ALO presence.
        If anybody want to manufacture anything inhouse, they should feel free to do so, completely legal as well.

      2. Yawn! This year Haas has nothing to do with last years Ferrari as it’s built around the newest engine. You just rely on Alonso’s envious commenting.

      3. Funny how the FIA seems to think Haas is designing their own car, and having it built to their specifications, and yet the fans apparently know better.

        Yes, it’s heavily based on the Ferrari. But the aero pieces are obviously different.

  2. I wonder why the cars, tracks and weather look so good in the new game but people look so weird. It’s something I see a lot in games: generally human beings look very odd. You don’t realize it’s a game when a car shows up on track, but when you see the cameramen and the journalists, it’s very obvious. Not a critic, just an observation.

    Also GP2 rocked. It was light years ahead of its time, and those days you saw a much steeper progress with each game. Today, graphics like those in F1 2018 are sort of expected. Every game looks awesome these days… it’s ridiculous how far we’ve come!

    1. Also the Williams on blue rims and without the HP decals on the sidepods looks like a completely different car!

    2. @fer-no65 – Yes, game developers have been stuck in the uncanny valley for years. Oh well…maybe it’s not a bad thing – keeps real F1 drivers employed on TV.

    3. Its a combination of things. Movies can pull of a pretty good CGI person where video games cannot. Long story short, this mainly has to do with available processing power and the limited timespan a video game has to render each frame, F1 2018 targets 60 frames per second on consoles which gives it 16.66ms to render out each frame where a movie can have multiple days to render a single frame. There is some lighting technology, called Ray Tracing, coming in the next generation of video game graphics that some say will help bridge this gap.

    4. Nitpicking maybe but I just watched the footage again and the suspension travel seems way off!

    5. The reason people look weird and objects look so great is because from the ground up this was built on a graphics and physics engine to maximise racing physics, atmospheric effects and the cars themselves. In other games they use for example the Unreal engine which has a ton of advanced facial, skin and hair textures essentially built in. Codies have to throw together the human characters entirely manually with the engine they use.

      Still, they look much better this year than last, the drivers are much more recognisable.

  3. Think the new wing (snowplow) design will be great for racing – especially if the FIA permits F1 to race on snow. Max will be amazing in the slalom sections.

    1. Now we understand why pre-season testing will be in Barcelona ;)

    2. Yeah, 200mm is massive. I mean, it’s almost 8 inches wider! The horrors!

  4. Sorry to be the voice of doom (I really want to be positive, honest!), but I’m pretty confused with the love of this new front wing. It’s still a Gillette razor, it’s now even wider, and still creates a Y250 vortex which will spill just as much turbulent air out the back as it’s predecessor. I just don’t understand the love for it. Again, sorry!

    1. It’s not just about how much dirt air the front wing generates but how it can handle the dirt air.

    2. Making the front wing full width of the car without the neutral central section would probably require big aerodynamic research and car redesign for the teams. Without the Y250 vortex the floor and bargeboards would needs to be designed differently. My understanding is that these are supposed to be quick fixes before the bigger regulation change comes in future.

      No need to be sorry for having an opinion. If people want to be offended they’ll always find something :).

      1. Very good point @socksolid, you’re definitely right. Perhaps in 2021 we will see a wing without the neutral section which was obviously first introduced without the Y250 in mind. Let’s see. Would have liked to have seen perhaps one less cascade on this new wing though.

    3. @john-h A Gillette razor, LOL.

  5. Unless they had a 2019 front wing or some long run test setup to try that they could not do during practice I have to agree it would have been a waste for them. Particularly seeing as Haas, the smallest team on the grid, had a tire test right after the triple header so they are probably better off getting a jump on their vacation.

  6. The tweet from Paul O’Neill that Justin Wilson would have turned 40 today really caught me out. I think about some of my (our) favorite drivers who have lost their lives in racing. Justin Wilson, Jim Clark, Greg Moore, Mark Donohue, Senna and too many more…

    Recently somebody on this site made a reference to the halo being a “Coward Canopy”.

    That seems harshly regressive, quite offensive and very disrespectful. As a fan of motor racing since the 1960s the amazing advances in safety are remarkable and appreciated by true racing fans. No doubt even more so by drivers, teams, officials and all their families.

    What if better safety measures had prevented Justin Wilson’s death and he would have actually turned 40 today? Would that have been cowardly?

    Imagining the replies already that racing is dangerous. Agreed. Life is dangerous at times. Does that mean safety should be ignored or called cowardly?

    1. Great write up. Sums up my thoughts.

    2. I completely agree. The Halo may not be the most aesthetically pleasing thing in the world, however I would much rather have drivers survive crashes in ‘ugly’ cars than die in good looking ones. Motorsport will always be dangerous but that doesn’t mean safety should take a backseat. It’s not cowardice, just common sense

    3. Couldn’t agree more… The term “coward canopy” is easy to type from the comfort of an arm chair…

      1. The term “coward canopy” is easy to type from the comfort of an arm chair…

        Makes you think who the real forward is!

    4. @bullmello Well said. As for me, not a halo fan, in a few months, I already stopped noticing it.

      1. Thomas Bennett (@felipemassadobrasil)
        1st August 2018, 9:16

        Same here.

      2. I stop noticing it then I see footage of the 2017 cars and wince a little.

        Not to say it should not be on there but I would prefer they keep researching and pushing forward with a canopy solution that may both offer better protection and aesthetics.

      3. I stopped noticing it some way through the australian grand prix. though admittedly, i have never cared what the cars look like too much.

  7. F1 cars have gotten so ugly I don’t even know what to think anymore.

    There seems to be no coherent philosophy when looking at the car holistically, and now these out of place front wings.

    Ultra wide boxy, simplistic font wings, abruptly drooping noses terminating in a thumb-like appendage.
    Then as we move further back, extremely sophisticated and complicated (gorgeous) bargeboard designs, crowned with the devastatingly offensive halo.
    Then acres and acres of smooth rear end that does not in any way balance out the chaos at the front, with a bolt on wing and diffuser.

    It just looks like a mess of confusion, unfortunately.

    1. If they can reduce the length of the cars, eliminate thumb noses and perfect a canopy solution we will have the best looking F1 cars since the Jordan 191 imho.

      But there have been far FAR uglier F1 cars in the past, it’s really not as bad as you make out.

      And the cars look absolutely gorgeous from behind.

      1. I agree this version of F1 cars is pretty unattractive. Personally I don’t think I have seen a less attractive incarnation of them. That’s just my opinion though.

        They do look much better from the rear.

        Moving forward, there is a lot of expectation on the 2021 design.

    2. Mick, the ugliness is a symptom of experimentation. If you want real horror, check out F1 in 1971. Both the March 711 and the Brabham BT34 were stomach-turners. There were many others, especially in the 60’s and 70’s. Even recently (2014?) we had the hideous nose appendages. This new crop aren’t so bad.

      1. Pics on these pages: March 771 and Brabham BT34.

  8. Guess Haas has given Ferrucci his pink slip.

  9. I agree with the COTD as well as with K-Mag.

Comments are closed.