Kevin Magnussen rates current Haas teammate Romain Grosjean ahead of world champion Jenson Button in pure speed.
The Dane partnered the Briton during his rookie season at McLaren in 2014 and was largely outclassed finishing 70 points behind before eventually being replaced by Fernando Alonso.
Still now, Magnussen is full of praise for Button, who retired from Formula 1 after the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix.
“If you look at the whole package – human, chemistry, lap times and so on – Jenson is the best teammate I’ve had,” Magnussen told BT Sport.
Even so: “There is no doubt that Romain is faster than Jenson. On one lap, Romain is exceptionally fast when it all goes well for him.”
Grosjean is considered as one of the top midfield drivers but is known for bouts of inconsistency as was the case for the first half of 2018.
While the results on a Sunday were lacking for a while though, the Frenchman did still beat Magnussen in the qualifying battle.
“It would have meant more to me if I had won it,” Kevin admitted. “Perhaps it means something if the big teams are looking at you, but I’m not advertising myself like that.”
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Reflecting on Grosjean’s improvement during the second half of the year, Magnussen puts it down to a better feeling with the Haas car as it was developed.
“Romain came back after a difficult period and it might have seemed like I took a step backwards, but that was not the case. He had just returned to his highest level,” he explained.
“It is clear that with the update, Romain got a car that suited him very well. Overall it was better, but unlike Romain, I could drive the old one too.
“In fact I have a hard time understanding that it made such a big difference to Romain.”