Haas’ reliability woes took a turn for the worse at the British Grand Prix, where Kevin Magnussen’s weekend was ruined by technical trouble.
It was the latest in a series of setbacks for the team. Magnussen’s team mate Nico Hulkenberg suffered a breakdown during practice for the Canadian Grand Prix three weeks earlier.More trouble struck in Austria. Hulkenberg had qualified eighth for the grand prix but only completed 12 laps before his power unit started smoking and he stopped on-track.
At Silverstone it was Magnussen’s turn to suffer misfortune. His weekend began to go awry when he stopped on-track during Q1 due to a loss of oil pressure, resigning him to 19th on the grid.
Following that setback, ahead of Sunday’s race, Haas’ technical director Simone Resta was hopeful the team had put the spare of failures behind it.
“Touching wood, it’s been a good season so far, I believe,” said Resta, while admitting, “we’ve had a few nightmares on the engine side.
“But other than that, I think it has been a decent start. I wouldn’t describe myself as particularly worried in that respect.”
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“To me, from a pure reliability point of view, from a team point of view, it has been a decent start so far,” he added.
But he acknowledged the team had suffered problems with parts outside its direct control, such as its Ferrari power unit. “We take what we’ve got, we are happy with what they give us, we run it and we do our best,” he said. “We focus on the part we can affect and we can improve.”
Unfortunately for the team, more problems lay ahead in the race. Magnussen’s drive came to an end after half-distance when he suffered a fiery engine failure which brought him to a stop on-track again.
After the race, Hulkenberg admitted he was concerned about the team’s reliability this year. “Definitely the alarm bells are ringing,” he said.
“It seems to happen more just on our team and cars. So I think we definitely take it seriously and we need to investigate and find out why,” added Hulkenberg.
Magnussen was more phlegmatic about the team’s predicament. “I couldn’t finish qualifying, I couldn’t finish the race, so obviously not my weekend,” he reflected on Sunday evening.
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“I think we are fighting a little bit too hard right now to get into the top ten, and we’ve just got to push together as a team and work harder moving forward.”
“It’s one of those things that it’s so much out of my control that I don’t tend to worry about it,” he added about his race-ending failure, which occurred following a change of units after his qualifying breakdown.
“Of course, I offer my feedback if they need it, but it’s really up to them to run the engine. It’s not something I can have any influence on. So all I can do is stay focused and you stay close to the team, try to help them find the next improvement.”
Haas slipped to eighth in the constructors’ championship at Silverstone, level on points with seventh-placed Williams.
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Qeki (@qeki)
13th July 2023, 9:14
Last years Ferrari engine?
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
16th July 2023, 10:29
@qeki This year’s. The factory Ferrari team has not managed to get 100% reliability from the unit either…
BasCB (@bascb)
16th July 2023, 15:53
Didn’t alfa romeo also have a few issues so far this year already?
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
13th July 2023, 9:17
Haas shouldn’t be happy with the engines Ferrari give them, unless they happen to be below cost. They need to know what caused these engine failures so they can try to keep their next engines from failing.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
16th July 2023, 10:29
@drycrust By regulation, all F1 engine supplies are now below cost.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
16th July 2023, 11:50
@alianora-la-canta Thanks. While I believe you, it doesn’t sound logical. This would certainly make things awkward for Haas. If they complain then Ferrari would want them to pay more. Hopefully the next generation of engines will be a lot cheaper, although I suspect that isn’t going to happen.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
16th July 2023, 23:55
@drycrust Ferrari might want Haas to pay more, but FIA regulations cap the maximum amount that can be charged for an engine (which is below what it costs to make the supply).
osnola
13th July 2023, 14:15
Probably a Ferrari engine running at the peak of its power in a chassis with insufficient cooling.
Claus J
13th July 2023, 15:21
Very unlikely.
Ferrari’s not likely to let Haas run engines at full power and Haas use 100% Ferrari parts. What ever do you base your assumption on?
osnola
16th July 2023, 12:31
It’s not Ferrari who is choosing the engine level setting. Each team can make its own choices, guaranteed by the rules about the engine.
SteveP
13th July 2023, 19:11
I thought one of the regs relating to engines was that the engine maker has to provide the same engine map across the board. with the idea that it would stop a team like Mercedes holding out on a better engine map so that customer teams could not compete with them.
Unless Ferrari have some special “we are Ferrari” dispensation, then Ferrari and Haas would run the same map.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
14th July 2023, 0:35
Exactly, that’s what I heard too, and mclaren beating merc lately kinda shows it.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
16th July 2023, 10:31
Ferrari does have to provide the same engine map across the board. The fact that the Ferrari factory team also has these problems to a lesser extent suggests that “too much power with too little cooling” is a plausible (though by no means certain) cause.