“He has returned much more mature after a year’s break”: Haas race engineer describes Kevin Magnussen’s evolution in 2022


“He has returned much more mature after a year’s break”: Haas race engineer describes Kevin Magnussen’s evolution in 2022

As Mick Schumacher‘s contract terms with Haas F1 Racing are coming to an end by this season’s last race at Abu Dhabi, all eyes are on the American team. At a time like this, some of the fans want their team line-up to remain the same as the junior Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen seem to make a powerful pair with quite some instances of good performances in the recent races. But there are other fans who wish to see a new face in place of Schumacher’s, as the German has not been impressive enough during his two years at Haas.

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To clarify a few things about what lies ahead of Haas for the upcoming 2023 F1 season, Ayao Komatsu, the team’s senior race engineer, sat down for a conversation with ‘Motorsport-Total.com’. The 46-year-old gave his opinion on how Kevin Magnussen’s attitude towards racing has evolved massively upon his comeback to their team, and how he believes, the Danish racer will take Haas forward in the near future.

Kevin Magnussen had left Formula 1 at the end of the 2020 season, alongwith his teammate Romain Grosjean, after Haas decided to terminate its contracts with both the racer, citing disappointing results. And when the 29-year-old came back to F1, his mental state showed a stark difference from how it was earlier, according to Ayao Komatsu.

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Haas’ race engineer showers praise on Kevin Magnussen for “day and night” change in mental state

Kevin Magnussen
Kevin Magnussen

Haas’ appointment of Kevin Magnussen came as a chance event after the team severed ties with their Russian sponsor Uralkali and Nikita Mazepin amidst the Ukraine-Russia war. Magnussen’s comeback to Haas made a giant splash at the very first race of the year in Bahrain when the Danish racer left heavyweights like Perez and Verstappen behind to grab the fifth position.

Ever since then, Magnussen has put up quite some impressive performances that seemed out of his league during his previous term at Haas. Speaking of Magnussen’s evolution, Komatsu said, “Kevin’s attitude and his mental state is like day and night different than two years ago. He has returned much more mature after this year’s break. It’s really a pleasure to work with him.

Komatsu also commended Magnussen for being a good influence on F1 greenie Mick Schumacher who imbibes a lot from his teammate’s experience. He said, “It’s very good for Mick to have an established team-mate like Kevin. And he (Kevin Magnussen) doesn’t even concentrate on to beat his team-mate, but he always thinks about the team.

Thus, it seems Haas’ race engineer is quite content with the teaming up of Kevin Magnussen with Mick Schumacher, and in his opinion, the German racer should be retained. Now, it is only to be seen what the team executives think of Mick’s situation, and then, maybe they will appoint someone new or retain him for 2023.

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