Kevin Magnussen: “Our race was compromised massively by having to pit for the black and orange flag”

The Hungarian Grand Prix saw a second consecutive point-less finish for the Haas F1 Team. The weekend saw the Haas F1 team debut their long-awaited first upgrade package of the season, but it proved to be a result to forget for the team.

Starting from thirteenth, Kevin Magnussen’s race was undone at turn one as contact with Daniel Ricciardo saw the black and orange flag brought out for the Dane due to the damage sustained on his front wing.

“Our race was compromised massively by having to pit for the black and orange flag. I had slight contact at the start with one of the McLaren’s – I couldn’t avoid it – and it wasn’t that bad, so I was surprised to get the flag.”

Pitting for the hard tyres, Magnussen like the rest of the field who opted for the C2 compound, struggled to find any pace in the tyre. Magnussen would go on to bring his Haas car home for a sixteenth-placed finish.

“Then later we couldn’t really switch the hard tire on, so it was good to get off that and do some laps on the medium compound.”

Magnussen was debuting the new upgrade package for the Haas F1 Team and the 29-year-old leaves Budapest hopeful that the upgrade package will come good in the races ahead.

“It was positive from the perspective that we could put the car on track and immediately measure what we were hoping for. It’s just going to be a lot of work to get the lap time out of it and that’s going to come over the next few races – it’s new potential to be unlocked.”

“It was again tougher than what we expected it to be”- Mick Schumacher

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Haas F1 Team garage, Mick Schumacher running the original Haas package, was able to gain one place on his original starting position for a 14th placed finish.

Despite a promising start which saw Schumacher as high a ninth place, the team opted for a gamble on the hard tyres but was unable to find any joy on the C2 compound.

“It was again tougher than what we expected it to be. We hoped that the C2 compound would work and it didn’t, so in terms of strategy we maybe gambled on the wrong tire. We had a good start, that’s what we aim for, but unfortunately, we couldn’t make it stick so it was P14 at the end.”

Although he was running the original Haas package this weekend in Budapest, Schumacher was keeping a close eye on Kevin Magnussen’s running with the updated package and is hopeful of a strong result next time out at the Belgian Grand Prix.

“I think we have a lot to look back at, analyse and understand so that for Spa we know how the new package works, what we need in terms of set-up and what we need to be quick. I expect this package to work pretty well in Spa and if that’s the case, we’ll know then for sure.”