During qualifying for the British Grand Prix, Mick Schumacher was slowed down by a problem with the steering and ended up retiring early in Q1 in 19th place. His teammate Kevin Magnussen was also unable to make it into the second qualifying segment with 17th place.
“We had a problem with the car, which of course didn’t exactly help,” says Schumacher, who says that the rainy conditions at Silverstone should normally have accommodated the Haas because you drive with a lot of downforce.
“The weather conditions should have suited our car, it actually did, but with this problem we had a lot of understeer and huge oversteer in other corners. So the car wasn’t quite what we had hoped for,” said Schumacher.
Schumacher: “Small mistake with big consequences”
The German’s onboard camera showed that he had to correct his steering wheel slightly to the left. In wet conditions in qualifying anything but ideal. “I think it’s a small mistake, but it had a big impact,” says the Haas pilot.
According to Schumacher, the cause of the problem is not yet known: “We don’t quite know yet, but the steering wheel was tilted quite far to the left, which of course is not very nice. We have to catch up more in the race.”
Things didn’t go much better for his teammate Magnussen either: “The first part of the session was still quite good, but at the end of the last two laps, when I was out on new tires and pushed as hard as possible, nothing worked anymore. It seems like the others could find even more pace than we did,” says the Dane.
Haas team boss Steiner: “Steering wheel adjusted by ten degrees”
Haas team boss Günther Steiner sums up his team’s Saturday as follows: “It wasn’t a smooth day today. Mick did a very good job in FT3, but Kevin couldn’t find the balance in the car. In qualifying we just had too much in the rain Understeer and the left front tire is too worn.”
“We just couldn’t get the car around the corner so we were already out in Q1. Mick’s car had the steering wheel misaligned by about ten degrees, which of course isn’t ideal when you’re trying to qualify in these conditions. Now we are regrouping to get the best out of tomorrow,” said Steiner.
However, the Great Britain Grand Prix is likely to be difficult for Haas, because in addition to the weak qualifying, Schumacher and Magnussen were not exactly able to shine in the race simulation on Friday. “Hopefully we can fix the problem for tomorrow and if not then it will probably be a difficult race,” said the German.