Kevin Magnussen said he almost had the same crash as his team mate while trying to take Abbey flat out using DRS during practice.
Haas only had one car running in second practice after Romain Grosjean crashed during the morning session.
Magnussen revealed he did make one attempt to use DRS through the corner. “I nearly ended up like Romain,” he told media including RaceFans.“It’s not possible for us to do it. Red Bull were doing it I think which is incredible, it’s not even close to be possible for us.”
Haas may be able to run through the second part of the sequence, Farm, with DRS open in qualifying trim, Magnussen suggested. “But I’m not sure it would be faster because then you’ll put a lot of energy in the tyres.
“If you have the downforce, like Red Bull, it looked solid. They don’t put any much extra energy in the tyres, that’s the kind of thing we need to take into account.”
Grosjean agreed it is “impossible” for the Haas drivers to take the corner with DRS open. He said he was trying to close the DRS on his car when he went off.
“I closed the DRS a bit too late on that lap,” he said. “The aero flow didn’t recover and I lost the rear end.”
The crash damaged the Haas badly enough for Grosjean to need a replacement chassis, which ruled him out of second practice.
“It wasn’t a big impact but I think the front wheel came back and removed some part on the chassis,” said Grosjean. “It was easier to repair the chassis than trying to repair those aero parts. That’s why we decided to change it.”
“It’s a shame an obviously we wanted to run FP2 but I’ve been watching Kevin quite a lot and watching what he was doing,” he added.
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Gemma St. Ivans
6th July 2018, 20:50
Grosjean is becoming the new Maldonado this year. He seems to have lost his focus.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
7th July 2018, 8:47
In general, I’d agree, but with KMag’s comments giving added context, I’m inclined to be a little more forgiving, as it appears that Grosjean was attempting to push the envelope to see just how far he could take advantage of DRS.
Salcrich
7th July 2018, 9:04
I don’t think this is an example of lost focus at all this was practice and he was clearly attempting to find the limit of the car – ie with DRS open – like the competition. Having realised it wouldn’t work he closed the DRS too late. Expensive for the team but I don’t think they would blame him for trying – in fact I would think he discussed doing it with his engineer before hand as KMag intended to do the same.