Haas revealed the reason for Kevin Magnussen describing his Canadian Grand Prix as the “worst experience ever” in a racing car.
The Dane made the comment over the radio as he ran towards the back of the field in Montreal, having started from the pit-lane following his crash in qualifying.
Team boss Guenther Steiner was quick to warn Magnussen about his words, reminding him of the work done to repair his car overnight.
After the race, however, the Italian explained why the pace was so poor.
“In the rebuild of Kevin’s car, we tried a little bit of a different set-up because we could, because of the pit lane start”, Steiner explained.
“Obviously that didn’t work. We know now. At least we learned that one. It was a conscious choice but not a choice to make the car worse, it was to try and make it better and it didn’t work.”
It is likely the team went for a low downforce setup to try and optimise top speed and increase his chances for overtaking, but the tyre issues with have hit Haas all year may well have returned.
Later, after crossing the line 17th even behind the Williams of George Russell, K-Mag accepted his words were misplaced.
“He apologised to everyone on the radio after the race. It was good he came over [the radio],” Steiner continued.
“Everybody is frustrated, the guys work until three in the morning. It’s not something that motivates you and you don’t need any more discussions on how bad it is.
“What I wanted to avoid is the guys getting beaten down more than they need to be.
“After the race, he didn’t mean to be critical, he just tried to explain a situation that this was a bad situation, but not blaming anybody.
“When you’re on the other side of the radio, you don’t know that. Maybe I could understand it, but the guys do not know because they don’t know the full story.
“He apologised to everybody, which is something a grown-up does.”
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Offering his explanation, Magnussen admits much of his frustration was at the inability of Haas to use their full potential.
“We have such a good car, and qualifying is brilliant, we can fight anyone in the midfield – and we’ve been on ‘best of the rest’ pole many times this year,” he said.
“So, it’s very hard to keep emotions under control in situations like today.
“There was nothing meant towards the team over the radio. They did an amazing job this weekend.
“We just have these tyres that don’t work in the race for us. It’s hard to not be very disappointed, I know the whole team is. They deserve a lot better.”
