Magnussen: Haas unlucky to be hit in weakest spot

Kevin Magnussen says he has lost no confidence amid the Haas Formula 1 team's ongoing struggles, believing it has been "unlucky" to be hit in its "weakest spot" by ongoing tyre struggles.

Haas has slumped to second-from-bottom in the constructors' championship after a four-race streak without points, with its impressive qualifying pace often fading dramatically on raceday.

Both Magnussen and teammate Romain Grosjean have lamented a lack of grip as the biggest issue with the Haas VF-19 car, leading to frustration given the team's pace and ability to lead the midfield on occasion in qualifying. Magnussen qualified an impressive fifth in Austria three weeks ago.

"I think this season it’s tougher because we see such great potential in the car in qualifying, and then we can’t extract any of that potential in the race," Magnussen said.

"It’s extra frustrating because of the potential that we see. I still, even though we don’t score points right now, I still find it amazing that we can qualify where we are qualifying. When you are part of this team and you see it from the inside - we shouldn’t be able to challenge Red Bull in qualifying pace. It shouldn’t be possible.

"When you see what we have to deal with compared to those big teams, it’s crazy that we can even challenge them. We are disappointed we can’t do it in the race, but there’s got to be a way to find out why and we are working on that."

Magnussen was full of praise for how Haas was trying to get to the bottom of its issues, saying its size was its biggest limitation compared to many of its rivals.

"I think the team is working very well - we just need hours or more people, but we haven’t got that. We haven’t got either of those things," Magnussen said.

"The work they’re doing is very good. It’s easier when you’ve got 1,000 people looking at a problem than 100 looking at a problem. We don’t even have that, because the whole 200 people, we’re not all engineers, so it’s tough problem to overcome for us right now. I’m confident we can do it over time."

Asked by Crash.net if he had any reservations over his long-term prospects at Haas, Magnussen said: "I haven’t got any concerns.

"We’ve been in a way unlucky that we’ve been hit with this kind of problem, a tyre problem, and fair enough other teams can sort it out.

"It’s just we’ve been hit in our weakest spot I guess, and hopefully some time that will change. We’ll work it out eventually."