"Kind of on-eggs a little bit out there" - Kevin Magnussen feels safety car was a 'bummer' at the 2022 F1 Australian GP
Kevin Magnussen did not have the best of weekends at the Australian GP. The Danish driver was out-qualified and out-raced by his teammate Mick Schumacher. That was not all, however, as Haas suffered a drop in form in Melbourne.
Neither of the drivers reached Q3 and Magnussen, after starting the race on hard tires, found his race compromised by an untimely safety car. Reflecting on a rather underwhelming race, Magnussen said:
“It was kind of on-eggs a little bit out there. Good fun, a nice track, bummed not to get points today but we made a small gamble I would say with the hard tire because we felt like we were faster than our position, which we were. Again, the safety car came and completely ruined the strategy and we know that is the gamble but it has happened two times now so it is a bummer.”
Disappointed not to get points today. We gambled on the hard tire, but the safety car ruined the strategy. The starting set-up wasn’t good and we were struggling with tires on the new tarmac. But we were able to turn things around and @HaasF1Team will score points next time 👊💥 https://t.co/QMDD1NUaID
Kevin Magnussen: Melbourne was an outlier for us
Guenther is confident we can bounce back at the next race in Imola ➡️🇮🇹
#HaasF1 #AusGP https://t.co/UoAFFbPYIz
What was arguably more alarming was the sudden drop in form for Haas as the team, which was probably fourth fastest at the start of the season, could not even reach Q3. Kevin Magnussen, however, was not too concerned as he felt that Albert Park was an outlier and the team will be back to scoring points in the upcoming races.
The Dane said:
“Yeah, this was an outlier. The starting set-up that we had here wasn’t good and we were also struggling a bit with tires because of this new tarmac, but we turned it around and we were able to get much closer to the pack in the race. We actually had quite decent pace, out-raced the Alpine of [Fernando] Alonso and he almost qualified on the front row yesterday so looking at that, it is a positive. We were able to turn things around and we will score points next time.”
The Australian GP was a throwback to the last few seasons for Haas as Kevin Magnussen himself was eliminated in Q1. Teammate Mick Schumacher fared relatively better and even on Sunday, Magnussen was overtaken by his teammate late in the race.
Haas, after a strong start to the season, is facing a slight drop in competitiveness and will be looking to set the record straight in Imola.