AUSTIN — As night falls this Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas ahead of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, Haas is about to embark on a dream trip to Austin.
An impressive double points finish for Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen in Saturday's F1 sprint race took the team to sixth place in the constructors' championship, level on points with the VisaCash App RB F1 team. Thanks to Hulkenberg's two sixth-place finishes earlier this year, Haas leads VCARB in this battle due to tie-break rules.
Thanks to Magnussen, who qualified for Sunday's main event in ninth place, Haas maintains a further lead over VCARB leader Yuki Tsunoda.
including dialogue with the media, SB Nationafter Saturday's qualifying, Magnussen said it had been a “joy” to drive the VF-24 so far in Austin this week.
“It's always fun to run the further you go,” Magnussen said. “I've had a lot of fun driving the car this weekend. It's been really good at this track. You know, we're seeing some kind of chaotic situations here, but luckily we've managed to turn it around for the better. I'm on my way.''
Haas brought an upgrade package to Austin for the US Grand Prix, but it was rolled out sparingly. The team decided to split the upgrade, installing it first on Hulkenberg's VF-24 ahead of the first practice session and waiting for data from the results before deciding whether to install the package on Magnussen's car. did.
With both drivers finishing in the points, Hulkenberg with the upgraded car and Magnussen with the old specification, questions were asked after the F1 sprint race whether Haas would proceed with the race as planned and install the upgrades on Magnussen's car before qualifying. A question arose.
The driver himself had doubts about the plan after qualifying. But in the end, Haas went ahead with the installation, and Magnussen said after qualifying that he was “pleased” with how the process had unfolded.
“Yes, I'm happy with this. I'm glad that the upgrade feels like it's working well. I don't think it matters whether it's day or night, but it's good that I'm not slowing down while wearing this. “And I think further research will be done, and I'm confident that the data that we've seen is going to turn out to be pretty much right, showing that it's an improvement.” Magnussen said.
“But that's always an unknown, especially when you go into qualifying without having the opportunity to correct small differences that may exist from bodywork to bodywork, from floor to floor.
“Yeah, great job by the team to make this upgrade happen and actually just bolt it on and go.”
Magnussen was asked if he had used the early stages of qualifying to get used to the upgraded VF-24, and the Haas driver said he had indeed. Not just in Q1, but throughout the entire session.
This means more may be unlocked tomorrow.
“Yeah, [you’re] Get used to it. But qualifying lasted almost the whole time,” Magnussen began. “Going into Q3, I told the team that I hadn’t been running good laps, so there’s definitely potential there.”
Magnussen also said that his final run in Q3 (abandoned due to George Russell's hard shunt) was on pace to be a “fantastic” lap on the final set of new soft tires. The Haas driver believes this is another sign that race time is even more likely.
“And, you know, we only had one set of new tires in Q3 and that was the last yellow flag, but that lap was going to be a great lap.
“I'm looking forward to going tomorrow.”
