Not a “one-hit-wonder,” Kevin Magnussen’s take on Haas’ success during the Bahrain Grand Prix

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen

The Bahrain Grand Prix ended on a tearful yet joyous note for the Tifosi’s. One of the most shocking events to take place that evening was to see both the Haas cars cross the checkered flags and score points whereas Red Bull did not bag even one point on the grid after both their cars retired due to a fuel system failure.

After Nikita Mazepin was not allowed to race due to his Russian nationality, Kevin Magnussen marked a spectacular return to the F1 grid by battling with the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in the early stages and finishing P5 in the season opener.

Magnussen’s performance puts Haas in third place in the constructors’ standings heading into Sunday’s race in Saudi Arabia, which is the team’s best result since 2018. The American-owned team finished fifth in the championship that year, a position that could have been higher had it not been for a double pit stop error at the Australian Grand Prix.

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Kevin hopes on having a similar season to 2018 when asked if the performance of the team four years ago gave him the confidence of a run in the points. He recalls throwing away quite a few points on strategy and operational errors and talks about his fellow teammate, Romain Grosjean, and says, “Had Romain had a little better first half of the season and didn’t have the pit stop errors in Melbourne, then we would have finished fourth in the championship which would have been incredible for a team like us.”

Problems ahead of Saudi Arabia Grand Prix

Haas' Team Principal Guenther Steiner with Kevin Magnussen — Haas’ Team Principal Guenther Steiner with Kevin Magnussen

During the practice session on Friday, Kevin was forced to sit out all but two installations laps of the first practice due to a radiator change, while in FP2 things did not turn out well for the Hass driver as he was the slowest of the 20 drivers after stopping on track midway through.

“It was kind of crazy last year wasn’t it not only is the track super crazy, but also it was a crazy race with two red flags and a lot of stuff happening. I expect, or at least I am prepared for a crazy race again and I guess everyone is trying to anticipate…” said Kevin regarding the situation in Saudi and the team’s condition.

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