Kevin Magnussen: “More pressure” in Jeddah

Kevin Magnussen has regained his place at Haas following Nikita Mazepin’s departure. A few days before the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Danish driver was able to familiarize himself with the circuit during the second wave of winter testing. Haas had indeed been granted permission to run for a longer period on Friday and Saturday in order to catch up after experiencing transportation issues on Thursday morning.

Magnussen finished in fifth place in last Sunday’s Grand Prix. This week, the preparation is less for the driver as he couldn’t test the Jeddah circuit on the simulator.

“The main difference is that I don’t know this track,” Magnussen said. “The way I prepared for Bahrain was very straightforward because we had the tests just before, so everything was familiar. You also know the tire degradation through the tests. Whereas here, it’s more uncertain, so there’s more pressure not to waste any runs. If I waste one with a set of tires we want to learn more about for the race, it can cost us dearly. There will be more pressure this time. But we’ll manage,” he said.

A delicate design

“It doesn’t seem to be an easy track,” admitted Magnussen. “It’s one of those circuits that you want to test on as many laps as possible. Fortunately, I can somehow use qualifying to adapt and then go all out for the race. I’m looking forward to being able to try it. As for the car, only time will tell if it will be as good here as it was in Bahrain,” he continued.

Asked about the 2021 Grand Prix, Kevin Magnussen talked about a crazy race. It wasn’t just the track that was crazy, but it was also a crazy race with two red flags, a lot of things happened. At least, I am prepared for an equally crazy race, and I think everyone is trying to anticipate. We were in the same situation in Baku one year, where the race was completely insane while the next one was boring because everyone was being cautious and anticipating the problems. It is definitely a unique circuit. Very fast for an urban circuit, concluded Magnussen.

After the 2021 Grand Prix, the organizers made some improvements to increase the visibility of the drivers on the track, improvements deemed insufficient by the Ferrari drivers.