Kevin Magnussen, Romain Grosjean, Haas, Circuit de Catalunya, 2019

Magnussen: Grosjean’s feedback helped Haas solve car problem

2019 F1 season

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Kevin Magnussen says Romain Grosjean helped Haas understand the problems it has experienced with its car by persuading them to remove one of their updates.

Haas reintroduced its Melbourne-specification aerodynamic package on Grosjean’s car at the Austrian Grand Prix after he told them he wasn’t happy with an upgrade introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix.

While Haas previously blamed tyre problems for their poor race pace, Magnussen said removing their updates “proved that there is also an aerodynamic problem” with the car.

“Romain has been saying from the beginning running the second spec car after Barcelona that he didn’t like the feeling of the car,” Magnussen explained. “Whereas I was less worried about the feeling of the car, I didn’t mind the feeling, but I wasn’t sure whether it was quicker or not.

“We saw in the wind tunnel the numbers suggested that it was faster. But then when Romain went back to the race one package he actually out-qualified me for two races. And then now the last two races we’ve been on the same spec and I’ve out-qualified him.

“So he certainly didn’t have a disadvantage when he was on the old spec. So it’s been an interesting experiment and I think. We’ve learned something from it.”

Magnussen said he would have preferred to run the old specification car at the races Grosjean had it. “If I could go back I would probably,” he said. “That spec looked more consistent and easier to drive.”

The team benefited from taking a ‘big picture’ look at their problems, said Magnussen.

“You learn all the time especially in those tough moments there’s a lot to learn because you’re really trying to figure stuff out. When things are going right you look more in in the small details to try and put it together in a perfect way. When everything is going well you can only gain from the little details.

“Whereas when you’re in a situation like this you need to step back and look at the whole picture. And sometimes that’s quite good too to look in places that you’re not usually looking.”

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2019 F1 season

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9 comments on “Magnussen: Grosjean’s feedback helped Haas solve car problem”

  1. I wouldn’t exactly describe Haas’ problems as “solved”.

    1. Where did you find that expression, “solved” ?
      He goes as far they now understand the direction of the latest parts were not quicker out there, and I dont think most or any in HAAS believe they “nailed” it.
      But glad to see they had the guts to questioning a very expensive development path for a small team and did the back to back to retain true data as of now to get a baseline to work from.
      Must be complex stuff to get the grib on seeing Renault works team mess around mid range like McL did even further down steam for years, and those teams has very serious budgets and experience in comparison. Lets hope they make up some points to finance being around this rather expensive travelling circus we all love.

  2. racing 2 specs was the smartest, boldest thing only a team like haas could have done. solved?

  3. I love how he emphasized that he was disadvantaged by the newer spec by subtlely mentionning that he outqualified his teamate in the latter races on same specs.

    1. Haha, yes a racing driving through and through

  4. As Horner said to Sky F1, the ‘good feedback argument’ to re-sign Romain seems odd since performance-wise “it’s not logical to keep him on”.

    Now, interestingly, according to Dutch F1 TV, Haas will have a major French sponsor next year to replace Rich Energy as a title sponsor and they wanted the team to retain Romain. This would make more sense imho. They haven’t said which company though.

  5. Energie Riche? (Excuse my use of an online translator.)

  6. Side topic – I noticed when Haas does well, it is because they are Ferrari B team. When they are bad, it is just a messy team…

    1. Yes, actually, that is very true. Good point!

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