Haas set-up backfires as Magnussen apologises for radio comments

Haas team boss Guenther Steiner concedes a different set-up on Kevin Magnussen’s car following his heavy qualifying crash failed to work as planned, while he confirmed the Danish driver has apologised to the team for his radio rant.

After Magnussen crashed during Q2 of qualifying, requiring a complete car rebuild overnight before the Canadian Grand Prix, the Haas driver had hoped to fight through the field from his pit lane start.

But the 26-year-old struggled for pace throughout the race in Montreal which led to him calling his Haas “the worst car I’ve ever driven” on team radio before Steiner stepped in to stop the situation.

Having finished in 17^th place, Magnussen apologised to his Haas team at the end of the race as Steiner revealed the cause of his poor pace.

“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. Obviously that didn’t work,” Steiner said. “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.

“He apologised to everyone on the radio after the race. It was good he came over [the radio]. 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 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.”

Magnussen also accepts it was tough to keep his emotions under control, having been confident of a strong result before his qualifying crash, and pinpointed his frustrations on getting the Pirelli F1 tyres in the best operating window – an issue Haas has struggled with at various races this season.

“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,” Magnussen 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. I made a mistake in qualifying, and they’ve been able to build me a completely new car for the race today.

“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.”