Brake failures put both Haas drivers out of the Austrian Grand Prix. Romain Grosjean revealed both of them had to limit their brake use from the start of the race.
“We were nursing them from lap one, looking after them,” said Grosjean. “Obviously something is not quite on the right level in the cooling so we’re going to work and sort that out for next week.”His team mate Kevin Magnussen said his brakes failed after he was passed by Esteban Ocon and had to run in the slipstream of the Renault.
“It felt like just both fronts [failed],” he said. “I was getting told all the time to do more and more lifting to save the brakes. By the end of it, I was doing everything I could and they blew up.
“They blew up when Ocon launched an attack on me so he took the cooling off and then in that moment they went. So it was always right there on the limit and it was not anticipated.”
Magnussen suspects something caused the brake problem on his car.
“It’s not like we knew we would get that big problems with the brakes,” he said. “We knew we would have to do some lift-and-coasts for brakes, but not at all in that way.
“So I might have got something, debris or whatever in the brake duct or something like that, I guess.”
Shame, we were P11 and if it wasn’t for all that brake saving, I would have had a decent place. I could have followed the Toro Rosso and he’s now 10th. A lot of people are having problems today. So it’s one of those things it’s one of those races where I wish I would have been out there now.
However Grosjean said the car’s performance is a bigger concern for the drivers than the brake problems.
“One of their main concerns as well is the pace,” said Grosjean. “It seems to be the slowest car out there. [It’s a] very tricky car to drive. Especially in traffic.”
“To me, the biggest problem at the minute is the performance of the car on its own,” he added.
2020 F1 season
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Adam (@rocketpanda)
5th July 2020, 16:59
Magnussen wasn’t doing terribly before his brakes failed, but overall the Haas looks like it’s a bit slow. Can’t help but wonder if their future in F1 is on shaky ground as this car doesn’t seem all that much better than last year’s.
Steven Robertson (@emu55)
5th July 2020, 19:12
I agree. Gene Hass didn’t look too pleased in last seasons drive to survive, how much more money is he prepared to put into this stalled endeavour.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
6th July 2020, 19:40
At least he’s winning races in Nascar.
BasCB (@bascb)
5th July 2020, 17:02
Well, looks like this season won’t be too easy on Haas once again. I believe Grosjean when he is talking about the car missing pace. And those brakes, didn’t they suffere brake issues in their second season already?
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
5th July 2020, 17:04
Grosjean will get no end of hate for what he’s said, but I think i can agree that their team is probably tied with williams and Alfa Romeo for being the worst out there. Magnussen in my view was excellent this race up until his car had an issue. grosjean started off well by making it through to Q2 and admittedly did have a bad start. His first mistake was no worse than what Bottas did in qualifying, But the Hass just doen’t seem to take running on the gravel in the same way as the Mercedes. I am aware he got a black and white flag for track limits, but there almost certainly looked to be a problem with his car when he was getting these warning, then within minutes, it failed like it did with Magnussen.
Grosjean is certainly not as good as he used to be, but I think he’s still good enough to be in F1. I can imagine there are going to be loads of comments going right against him. It is only one race and he wasn’t even that bad last year. Brazil was an outstanding race and he was on the same strategy as Sainz and without reliability problems, he likely will have been 3rd or 4th. Grosjean’s luck last year hid the fact that he was actually clearly better than magnussen overall.
Despite what people think, this team decided to hold onto both drivers. So there are reasons for that and neither are as bad as most seem to think.
jlb
5th July 2020, 17:23
Haas’ “brakes odyssey” is beyond ridiculuos at this point. Kevin was doing a decent race until the failure, and Romain… No comments.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
5th July 2020, 17:26
F1 is so competitive that drivers would rather have more power than a proper brake.
Bob C.
5th July 2020, 18:49
I remember watching an interview with a former F1 driver (I think is was Jan Magnussen) who was asked what was the worst he could imagine happening during a race. The interviewer suggested that it would be the brake pedal failing.
Without a second’s hesitation the driver answered: No, the gas pedal.
Chaitanya
5th July 2020, 17:33
Steiner has already criticised PU..
Leroy (@g-funk)
5th July 2020, 18:36
Grosjean is right. The biggest problem the team have, and they have many, is located between the steering wheel and the seat in car number 8. Magnussen was in 11th after starting 16th and doing ok. Meanwhile Grosjean was spinning all on his own, getting repeated warnings about track limits with finally a black and white flag and battling for last place when his brakes finally gave out and mercifully ended the day for them.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
5th July 2020, 21:18
I am pretty certain exceeding track limits that many times was related to a problem as it was litrally right after this that he had to pull off and retire. The mistake he made at first was no worse than Bottas in qualifying, but that car is just much more of a handful to control. Magnussen deserves a lot of credit today. He was good until his car went wrong. Grosjean did very well to get in to Q3 but did have a bit of a poor race. But Hass chose this line up so you shouldn’t be saying the problem they have is the driver. There is clearly some area where they really have done a poor job with this car. Grosjean has had retirement with something that should haev been easily avoidable at the first race for the past 3 years. Magnussen has in 2 of them too. And all of them have been down to the team making some pretty poor mistakes. The drivers are not the problem here.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
5th July 2020, 22:43
Ahah, fun one, leroy!