Feb.5 (GMM) Haas’ 2020 car should be “clearly better” than its predecessor, according to team driver Kevin Magnussen.
The small American team had a promising start to 2019, but spent most of the season pointing fingers at Pirelli’s difficult-to-understand tyres.
However, as it slumped to second to last in the standings, Haas eventually admitted that it was suffering from a serious aerodynamic problem.
“What I’ve been told is that last year’s car delivered a certain number of points of downforce in the wind tunnel, and there was a difference between that and the track. It was a huge difference,” he told BT newspaper.
“We have a clearly better downforce number this year, and we have done things to make the difference between the two numbers not so great. So if it works out, then it looks good.”
Magnussen, 27, is staying put at Haas for now, but he admits he had offers to switch to other teams on the grid.
“Yes I did (get offers),” he confirmed. “But Haas was obviously the best option.
“When I was at Renault I could feel that they (Haas) really went after me. They had done really well as a new team so I took a chance and I don’t regret it.”
However, he is frustrated that his dream of being world champion is still far away, but has instead set the target for now of dominating teammate Romain Grosjean.
“I would be lying if I said that wasn’t true,” Magnussen smiled.
“I am in Formula 1 because my dream is to be world champion. It’s not to get into the top 10. And if I can’t even beat Romain, then the big teams are probably not going to look at me, are they?”