Kevin Magnussen admits Haas’ continued “impressive” pace leaves them “anxious” about upcoming upgrades.
The American team ended a two-year wait for a double points finish with back-to-back top 10 results for both drivers at Silverstone and in Spielberg.
That momentum has kind of carried to Paul Ricard as Magnussen claimed P8 in Practice 2 on Friday.
But with Haas extracting more and more speed out of their current package, the prospect of their only upgrade package of the season coming next weekend in Hungary is creating nervous excitement.
“Yes, it’s true,” Magnussen said of the VF-19’s competitiveness on different circuit types via Formula1.com.
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“I mean, it’s very, very impressive how the car seems to be you know, the team is finding pace in the car, despite no upgrades – so I’m very happy about that.
“Of course, it’s going to be exciting to see when we do get upgrades how it is but it’s almost like we’re a bit anxious about it. So far it’s been going well, we hope for more this weekend.”
Commenting on Haas’ recent strong result, team boss Guenther Steiner hoped the top 10 would be a realistic goal at every race going forward.
“It’s very good, very good for the team,” he said on the F1 Nation podcast.
“We didn’t think we would finish this strong [in Austria], we knew we were going good but this strong? It’s very good, especially after Silverstone – double points in the sprint and double points again [on Sunday], it’s fantastic.
The Steiner Ship is now ready to welcome you, all aboard! #HaasF1 #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/Go0QPWMXT5
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) July 10, 2022
“The performance in Spielberg was particularly good for us, which was of course a bit unexpected. But to be honest, I think we can score points in every race.
“Can you imagine if we had upgrades where we are?” he added with a laugh.
“I always say upgrades are overrated, in my opinion, and we will bring some in Hungary – hopefully they will work as they should work.
“I don’t always follow what the others are doing, you need to go your own way, and we decided in Barcelona not to bring anything just to bring them because it wasn’t good enough.
“We developed more and hopefully, when we bring them in Hungary, they will work.”