Danish Formula One driver
Kevin Magnussen evaluated the competitive position of the
Haas team after finishing in last place in the Constructors' Championship.
Haas F1 driver Kevin Magnussen finished the Driver's Championship in 19th place and contributed, unfortunately, only three points to his team, which was not enough to lift it from the last place in the Constructor's Championship.
The main problem for Magnussen and his teammate
Nico Hulkenberg was the fact that the team
could not introduce effective upgrades, unlike some of its rivals, including
AlphaTauri.
Haas's performances could be summarized by occasional above-average qualifying results for a team competing at the back of the grid but frequent below-average race pace even for a team competing at the back of the grid.
Magnussen's best result in 2023 was 10th place, which he achieved during three races -
Saudi Arabia,
Miami, and
Singapore. The Danish driver told the media:
"The thing is we will show flashes of very good performance, so it's not just a flatline of poor performance all the time. But it's way too much poor performance."
The biggest problem for the American team in 2023 seemed to be high tire degradation, which resulted in loss of performance and race positions.
"There's potential in there and that's the motivational thing. At same time it's frustrating because we can't seem to hit consistency with our top level performance."
On the other hand, the 31-year-old sees potential in the car. Maybe if the team was able to fix the tire degradation problem, it could have competed for seventh place in the Championship with
Williams.
"But also motivating at the same time, because you can see there is some performance in there that we just can't seem to unlock properly."
Magnussen will race for Haas F1 team in 2024 so he will have a chance to work with the team on the car throughout the winter to turn things around at least until next season.