“It’s Realistic that we can aim for Points” Haas Australia GP

Just a matter of weeks before the first race of the season Haas cut their partnership with Uralkali, and we saw a driver change with Nikita Mazepin departing making way for the returning Kevin Magnussen.

After two races Haas sit 5th in the constructors championship with 12 points, all have which has been scored by Kevin Magnussen.

Magnussen saw a 5th place finish in Bahrain, with teammate Schumacher narrowly missing out on his first points finishing 11th.

Saudi Arabia saw Magnussen bring his Haas home in 9th place, with Schumacher missing the race after a horrendous crash in qualifying.

Optimism is flying high for the Haas team ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.

What The Team Say

Kevin Magnussen

“I really like Australia and Melbourne. There’s something about that race – for so many years it used to be the first race of the year – so there’s always a special feeling there, so let’s hope we can keep it going and have another good weekend.”

“We’ve got a pretty good all-round car this year. We’re still learning about it but I have a feeling we’re stronger in low-speed and medium-speed than high-speed. Not that we’re bad at high-speed but I feel our strengths are towards low and medium, so that should be ok for Albert Park.”

“I feel that this team is a very pure racing team. The reason this team exists is because Gene (Haas) is a passionate racer, and it just so happens that he’s also got this big corporation that he’s able to promote via this great sport. It’s a simple structure in this team and it’s a small, little, intimate team. It’s very unique in Formula 1 terms to be this intimate and to know the names of that many people within the team, it’s kind of cool.

“The structure is different to other teams – we outsource a lot of stuff – but it just means it’s very straight communication throughout the whole team and I think that plays to some advantages. When you have a problem, you can easily address it and once you address it, you can easily adjust whereas with bigger teams I think it takes longer to turn things around.”

Mick Schumacher

“It will be the first time for me to go and race in Melbourne, and Australia in general, so I’m quite excited. I’m looking forward to getting to know the track and getting to know the city as well. I’ve been there with my dad and have watched him race in Melbourne, that was really cool, and I’m excited to drive there myself and make my own experiences of driving in Formula 1 in Australia.”

“I think we have a car that we can fight with and a car that is competitive, which is great. Yes, the track is like most other tracks where it needs bedding in, especially when they’re driven by road cars all year round. My dad holds the lap record in a 2004 Ferrari – I got the chance to drive that car – and it’s an amazing car. We’ll make our own laps in a similar looking car actually, the cars have turned back in time and they’re looking a bit more like they used to with the high front wing, so it will be interesting. Obviously, very different compared to 2004 but still great to drive with the VF-22.”

“Acclimatizing is important. Luckily this particular race and Australia in general is a great place to go, it’s so different to everywhere else. I’m lucky enough to go there early and spend some time there.”

Guenther Steiner

“I think it’s realistic that we can aim for points in every race, at least for the first half of the season and then we will see if teams make big upgrades or if they gain a lot of pace. I’m optimistic that we can keep this form, we just have to try to score points with both cars.”

“I think the relationship between our drivers is pretty good. For Mick, he can have a reference now with Kevin, and Kevin is trying to help Mick with his experience which he got from driving Formula 1 cars for six years in his career. Internally, the team works very well together on both sides of the garage – with engineers and mechanics – it’s a very good atmosphere at the moment.”

“The outstanding thing is that we were lucky and FOM and all the teams did a good job in 2020 after the pandemic hit. We were back on the road after four or five months of thinking how to do this best, had a good calendar that year and we just kept on going. It could’ve had a big impact but obviously I think Formula 1 made an opportunity out of a challenge which was given to us. Formula 1 is in a good place at the moment with fans and exposure, so I think in bad times everybody did a good job to get to where we are now.”

Image Credits F1