F1 News: Kevin Magnussen Realistic Ahead Of 2024 Season - "Clearly A Lot Of Work To Do"

Kevin Magnussen remains realistic during pre-season testing.

In a day that was deemed 'positive' for Haas during pre-season testing in Bahrain, Kevin Magnussen has voiced that there's still a significant journey ahead. Despite the productive session, both Magnussen and teammate Nico Hulkenberg ended the day lagging behind, with a clear gap to the front-runners.

Key Takeaways:

• Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg completed a total of 148 laps in the first day of Bahrain pre-season testing, yet found themselves at the bottom of the timing sheets.
• Magnussen highlighted the team's focus on long runs and addressing last year's tyre issues, expressing optimism but acknowledging the need for further improvements.
• Team principal Ayao Komatsu viewed the day as a solid start to testing, with the team achieving their set goals but recognizing areas for operational enhancements.

Haas F1 Team's outing in Bahrain for the pre-season testing saw a blend of optimism and realism, as the squad embarked on a day of intensive testing with their eyes set on progress. Kevin Magnussen, taking the wheel in the morning session, and Nico Hulkenberg, in the afternoon, put the VF-24 through its paces, clocking up a combined total of 148 laps around the Sakhir circuit. Despite their efforts, the pair found themselves trailing, with their best times over four seconds adrift of the pace setter, Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

Magnussen, shared his insights from the day in the team's round-up, reflecting a sense of satisfaction mixed with an acute awareness of the challenges ahead. He explained:

"I feel very good. Physically, it was a good morning as it’s always fun getting back into the car after the winter.

“I think we had a pretty positive morning, we just focused on long runs and we’re really trying to address the issues that we had last year with the tires.

“That’s going to be our main focus and we’re happy about what we saw this morning, but there’s clearly a lot of work to do but everyone’s fired up to investigate and learn about this new car."

Echoing his teammate's sentiments, Hulkenberg shed light on the afternoon's proceedings, focusing on high-fuel, long runs to better understand the VF-24 and experiment with tyre strategies, a known weak point from the previous season. The German driver commented:

"Our afternoon was mainly about high-fuel, long runs and the objective was to learn about the car and try some things with the tires.

“We know it was our weakness last year so that’s really been the focus today. It was all good and positive, there were no issues on the technical side and with 82 laps on the board, everything was achieved."

Team principal Komatsu offered a broader perspective on the day's achievements and areas for refinement. He acknowledged the day as a commendable beginning to the team's pre-season efforts, stating:

"For our first day of pre-season testing, overall, I think it was a pretty decent day – it wasn’t perfect, but it was a really decent start.

“We have a few operational things to sharpen up as well, just so we run slightly better, but with 148 laps recorded, we now have plenty to build on [for the rest of testing]."

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