Kevin Magnussen in the modified Haas VF-22 was 0.167 seconds faster than his teammate Mick Schumacher in the “old” car in Formula 1 Friday practice for the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring near Budapest. But does that automatically mean the Haas update is a success?
“The numbers don’t look bad,” says team boss Günther Steiner after finishing 16th and 17th at the start in Hungary. However, Haas did not focus on sheer lap times in Friday practice, but simply wanted to collect a lot of data with Magnussen in the improved vehicle.
“The good thing is that the values match,” says Steiner. “Now we have to work on the balance to make the most of the numbers because we have to find more there. But that’s quite normal when you’re using a new package for the first time.”
That’s why testing was the priority for Magnussen. The fact that an improvement can be assumed based on the first results is “very good”, says the Dane.
“Of course we still have a lot of work to do to really get the update to work and get more potential in terms of lap times and balance. But so far so good. A good day. It’s looking pretty positive.”
Magnussen: “Hopefully we can take that with us”
However, his team found it difficult to set the car up perfectly for the track with the new parts right from the start. “It didn’t feel bad for that,” says Magnussen.
What is different compared to the basic version of the vehicle that has been used up until now? “The deployment window has shifted a bit,” Magnussen says, but doesn’t go into detail.
“Other than that, nothing stood out that would have been different, when you think about turning in and things like that. There are subtle differences, but it’s difficult to tell from track to track. Nothing major has changed. The car feels more or less equal.”
With the update, you probably don’t run the risk of taking a technical step backwards. After all, that’s “the hard part, when you deploy an update and move away from what you’ve learned before and know well,” Magnussen explains.
“When you have something well tweaked and then explore new things. That seems like it though [ein Problem] to be that we don’t have.”
Rather, Haas has already discovered promising characteristics on the modified car. For example over the distance with more fuel in the tank: “We took another step there to get more out of balance. I also had the impression that we look better with less fuel. Hopefully we can take that with us,” says Magnussen .
Steiner recognizes “good values”
He speaks of “small steps” that Haas is making with the new vehicle. His teammate Schumacher, who still has to drive the previous version in Hungary, claims to have already recognized that “the other car develops significantly more downforce” in fast corners. “By how much, we still have to go into detail ourselves,” said the German.
“Because it’s not quite clear yet how much benefit the new package will bring. We’re also trying to address a couple of fundamental issues that we’ve seen across most tracks, but for now our focus is on improving downforce. ” Haas could have done that with the Hungary update.
In any case, team boss Steiner recognizes “good values” and “the right direction” in the development of his racing team. “If we get more data that corresponds to that from the wind tunnel, then everything will be fine. But we still have to look at it in detail.”
Nevertheless, one should not expect an immediate leap in performance: “We are now twelve races with the [bisherigen] Driven a car and know it pretty well. Then there is no magic part that we could bring. It takes time to [das Update] set. But I’m confident because the numbers are right.”