Magnussen: At Haas there is no bullshit…

Kevin Magnussen says he’s loving life at Haas and sees it as a devoted racing team compared to his previous Formula 1 teams as he aims to build on his maiden year with the American squad in 2018.

The Danish driver switched from Renault to Haas last winter and produced his best season since his rookie year with McLaren in 2014 thanks to five points finishes and a highlight of seventh place at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. For the first time in his F1 career Magnussen had his future sorted at the same team before the end of the year and hopes that consistency can provide momentum heading into the 2018 campaign.

Magnussen says he feels at home at Haas thanks to its pure F1 focus and smaller demands on sponsor events to free up its drivers to concentrate on racing. Magnussen’s previous F1 teams McLaren and Renault have comparatively giant commercial structures and deals, with the Danish driver feeling his job is “straightforward” at Haas and can freely speak to team bosses Guenther Steiner and Gene Haas.

“I feel very at home, very happy, it’s nice to be in a team that’s very simple,” Magnussen said. “Everyone here is here to go racing. There’s no bullshit or any commercial stuff. It’s very uncommercial, a real race team. It’s kind of going racing in Formula One with a F3 team. It’s very straightforward.

“They are [Steiner and Haas] all there in the debriefing, they don’t have to speak to any sponsors or anything, they’re in the office with us -- apart of everything. I really enjoy working as a team, as a whole, not just working with the engineers and mechanics. It’s one team.

“We don’t have to deal with people you don’t want to deal with. There’s no one here that I don’t really enjoy working with. You don’t have to do stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with racing, it’s all racing and none of the other stuff. It just gives you a different feeling of… no bullshit.”

Haas has an unchanged driver line-up for its third season in Formula 1 with Magnussen staying alongside Romain Grosjean. The team is aiming to improve on its back-to-back eighth place finishes in the F1 World Constructors’ championship.