Kevin Magnussen - Monaco Grand Prix Q&A

Barcelona delivered Rich Energy Haas F1 Team’s first double-points finish of the season and its eighth since joining Formula One in 2016. Scoring points is always good, but how much of a shot in the arm was it for the team to have a strong weekend from beginning to end that yielded some tangible results?

“It was great to have a strong weekend from start to finish. I was very happy for the team to score points with both cars.”

You had to begin the Spanish Grand Prix race weekend running the old specification of the Haas VF-19 as the team worked to diagnose in real time the benefits of the upgrades it brought to Barcelona and put on Grosjean’s car. How impactful was your work with the old specification in getting a better understanding as to how the upgrades would make both cars better?

“I think it was a good plan to split the cars, running with the old and the new in order to compare directly. We got some good data. So, hopefully we’re able to make some quick progress because of that.”

Getting the tires into the proper operating window and then keeping those tires in that operating window had been the team’s challenge prior to the Spanish Grand Prix, but that didn’t seem to be a problem in Barcelona. What made the difference?

“Temperatures on the track surface and the layout made the difference. It’s still an issue we’re investigating and making progress on.”

Can what you learned about the Haas VF-19 and its relation to its tires carry over to Monaco?

“It’s a very different track. We’ll see about the temperatures there, but I think we might struggle to use what we had in Barcelona in Monaco, which is always the case. We’ll see how we go.”

Rich Energy Haas F1 Team has proven strong in qualifying this year, placing both its cars into the final round of knockout qualifying in all but one race this year. Knowing how important qualifying is at Monaco, is that the team’s best asset to secure another points-paying performance?

“Hopefully, we can be strong in Monaco qualifying. The race is always a different story there as it’s so hard to overtake. Obviously, we still want to be fast in the race. We’re going to work hard to have good pace and keep the tires in their windows.”