After being at Haas during times of fighting, Kevin Magnussen says he “can not believe” the difference in the team since his return.
Haas has spent the last two seasons around the back of the field, effectively sacrificing their 2021 campaign entirely as they focus solely on the mass regulatory changes in Formula 1, and how their car would present itself.
The signs for them are also positive, with Magnussen and teammate Mick Schumacher both ranked in the top 10 after the qualifying simulation in FP2 on Friday.
After a relatively solid pre-season and showing signs of a solid pace, the Dane now sees significant differences to the team he left at the end of 2020.
“The team has done a fantastic job in the last week of the test so far – it has been tireless work.” 🙌
Guenther thanked the team after a strong start to the #BahrainGP Weekend 🇧🇭# HaasF1 pic.twitter.com/U1Arn8i4As
– Haas F1 Team (@ HaasF1Team) March 18, 2022
“I can not believe what’s going on at all,” Magnussen told Motorsport.com after Friday’s training session. “He’s such a cool man, surreal. So I feel very happy.
“The car felt good all day again, like last week. In FP1, we focused a little more on the race setup and the race feel, and we did not try to set a lap time. .
“In FP2, we made a Qualy Sim, still not quite for it, but more like a Qualy Sim and that looked better over time.
“But I think long term was what I was really encouraged about. The car just felt so consistent and the lap times were really strong.
With teams still showing their hands full, Magnussen wanted to point this out – but remains satisfied with what he has seen from his team so far.
“At this point, I still have the feeling that I do not know where people are, especially when you look at long-term pace,” he said.
“It’s very up and down, even between teammates, so let’s see. So far we feel good and we are happy and with a good car. So I’m excited for tomorrow.”
After experiencing more competitive times with the American team, Magnussen added that he wants the good times to return to the Haas garage.
“I really hope so, and so far it looks like that,” he said. “But I have enough experience in this sport to know that you can not feel safe until the season is over, basically.
“But it has certainly been a good start so far. We have only done two exercises so far, so we’ll see how it goes the rest of the weekend, but it was a good start.
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