F1 News: Haas Chief Reveals Cause Of Major Kevin Magnussen Crash During Mexico GP

High brake temperatures led to a rear suspension failure.

Haas team boss Guenther Steiner stated that the unexpectedly high brake temperatures on Kevin Magnussen's VF-23 F1 car caused the rear suspension to fail and thus led him to have a major crash during the Mexican GP.

Magnussen was taken off the track on lap 32, supposedly due to a left rear track rod failure when the car was under load doing the first right-hander at Turn 8. The sudden change in direction caused him to crash into the barriers quite badly. 

Luckily, he managed to climb out of the car in time as smoke could be seen at the site of the crash. He was then taken to the medical center where was declared fit before returning to the paddock. 

Just a few corners before the crash when Logan Sargeant passed Magnussen, the Dane was told by his race engineer that he had to get his brake temperatures under control. After the crash, one could see in the TV footage that a fire was starting around the left rear of the Haas F1 car.

Explaining the cause of the crash, Steiner told Autosport:

"It was a heat issue which caused a suspension failure. It was heat from the brakes.

"Kevin was defending, and it tipped over. It was just because of the high temperatures here. We just need to manage it better. Nico's car was OK."

A few seconds before the crash, Magnussen was heard explaining to his team that there was a problem with the rear left, suggesting that something was amiss. He added:

"I'm feeling okay. The suspension gave up. The rear left specifically lost a lot of grip a couple of laps before that, I suddenly lost a lot of grip on that, and then it gave up after.

"I think it was going alright. At the beginning of the race, it was better, and then suddenly I fell off more than the others. And then the suspension gave up.

"So I don't know if it's related. Maybe there's something there, but I need to go and talk to the guys."

Though he was seen shaking his hands after he got out of his wrecked car, suggesting pain, he insisted that it was just a knock on the hands but otherwise, he was fine.