RaceFans Brief: Haas should aim to “take a big leap like Aston Martin”

Briefly

Aston Martin surprises Magnussen

Haas completed eighth within the builders’ championship final 12 months, one place behind Aston Martin. However they’ve seen their opponents leap ahead this 12 months, with Haas caught in the course of an more and more shut midfield battle.

“Yearly we speak about how shut it’s this 12 months, and this 12 months has positively been a giant step in direction of being nearer,” Magnussen mentioned. “So I do not suppose it may be like whenever you go to the primary race in a automotive and also you see the place you might be and also you keep there all 12 months and also you struggle for the P8 or P9 in each race .

“This 12 months, it’s important to do every little thing proper to get P8 or P7 or the ‘better of the remaining’. There is without doubt one of the midfielders approaching the highest and this 12 months it is a totally different image. I feel that is what stunned me a bit bit.”

Magnussen mentioned Haas had the low season good points they anticipated, however wanted to intention extra to meet up with the likes of Aston Martin.

“We knew we have been going to take a step ahead with the automotive this 12 months and we have been positive of that and it exhibits on this monitor,” mentioned Magnussen. “We have now the efficiency we hoped for. The opposite groups did a extremely good job as effectively. So we’re nonetheless within the midfield combine.

“After all we might like to take a giant step like Aston Martin and transfer in direction of the highest. However that is what we should always intention to do sooner or later.”

Mercedes’ Imola replace is a “first step”

Mercedes says its main improve bundle to subsequent week’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix would be the “first step” in turning the W14 right into a aggressive bundle.

“Improvement within the wind tunnel takes fairly a very long time and you’ll’t do it in a single day,” mentioned Andrew Shovlin, the staff’s director of roadside operations. “The Imola bundle is step one in that route. We hope to carry additional updates later within the 12 months.

“We hope will probably be quicker, we hope will probably be higher by way of qualifying and race tempo.” The important thing level, although, is that we’re not contemplating simply introducing a lap time replace, we wish to transfer in a distinct growth route. It is one thing we expect offers us a greater probability in the long term to have the ability to struggle for race wins and world championships.”

Ericsson ‘fairly damaged’ after shedding F1 drive

Marcus Ericsson mentioned he felt he may by no means proceed his F1 profession as he misplaced his drive after spending 5 seasons within the sequence. He described the second he realized he had misplaced his place on the System 1 grid on the finish of 2018. With Sauber teammate Charles Leclerc transferring to Ferrari, the substitute of Kimi Raikkonen meant the tip of Ericsson’s time with the staff:

“I knew the opposite seat Charles had was going to be a Ferrari junior or a Ferrari driver.” told David Land. “So Kimi signed on to ‘my’ seat after which I knew it was over. However in a approach, I’ve by no means been in a position to advance my F1 profession in any approach. I used to be fairly devastated in my confidence ranges and every little thing on the time. I had a tricky time.”

“After all it was disappointing in some methods, however I additionally felt there was an opportunity to do one thing else and actually discover some new motivation,” Ericsson mentioned.

He finally switched to IndyCar with Schmidt Peterson and is now heading to Ganassi. “The day I received the knowledge that I used to be going to get replaced, I known as my supervisor and advised him we should always have a look at America, have a look at IndyCar, I wish to go there,” Ericsson mentioned.

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