Haas: Grosjean satisfied, Magnussen frustrated!

The Haas team experienced mixed fortunes with its two drivers. Romain Grosjean twice recorded an excellent 8th fastest time and was able to complete a full program, which is a pleasant surprise for the French driver.

Grosjean: FP1 → 8th, 1:26.168 (20 laps) / FP2 → 8th, 1:25.436 (29 laps)

It was quite a good day on my side. The car seems better than during winter testing, which is really good. It’s good to be here and to engage the right setup with the car and go out and have some fun on the track. We have more or less completed our program, which is a nice surprise for our first day in Australia, even though we had some problems on the other side of the garage. Fortunately, we will be able to share the data and go even faster tomorrow.

Magnussen: FP1 → 17th, 1:27.667 (20 laps) / FP2 → 19th, 1:27.279 (8 laps)

On his side, Kevin Magnussen couldn’t complete many laps. A rather difficult first day for the Danish newcomer to the American team: « It’s a really frustrating day from which I can’t gain much. We will look into the problem and hopefully find the solution. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. But we don’t know what will happen with the weather. If it rains, it will change a lot of things. It’s nice to see that the car is competitive, it’s very exciting for the rest of the season. »

Despite these setbacks, Haas’ sporting director, Günther Steiner, is not unhappy with how the first day of the season unfolded: « We had two very different scenarios: Romain had good sessions and learned a lot of things. He seems to be fast and competitive, but we had some problems with Kevin. In the morning, we didn’t find the balance on the car, and in the afternoon, we worked on it again. But all in all, for a first day in the season, it’s not so bad. »

📸Fever!!! Back to work. #F1 2017 @ausgrandprix 🏎🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/kIACizh1aZ

— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) 24 mars 2017