F1 star admits 'lot of work to do' after testing

Verstappen during official testing in Bahrain in 2023 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Testing 2024

F1 star admits 'lot of work to do' after testing

The team had a positive day of running in Bahrain on Wednesday

Originally written by Tyler Rowlinson. This version is a translation.

Friday 23 February 2024 01:57

Kevin Magnussen has admitted that Haas still have a lot of work to do if they're to reach a competitive level this season.

Both Magnussen and team-mate Nico Hulkenberg hit the track on Wednesday in the new VF-24, putting up almost 150 laps on the first day of pre-season testing.

The duo finished bottom of the timing sheets at the end of the day, both over four seconds down on the fastest lap set by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

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But the team seemed to have a productive day on track on Wednesday and hit the targets they set out, yet Magnussen has said that there is still more work to be done.

Haas completed 148 laps on Wednesday in Bahrain

The team said that they had a positive day of testing

But Kevin Magnussen insists that there is still more work to do

Magnussen: There's a lot of work to do

“I think we had a pretty positive morning, we just focused on long runs and we’re really trying to address the issues that we had last year with the tires.

“That’s going to be our main focus and we’re happy about what we saw this morning, but there’s clearly a lot of work to do but everyone’s fired up to investigate and learn about this new car."

Team-mate Hulkenberg added: "Our afternoon was mainly about high-fuel, long runs and the objective was to learn about the car and try some things with the tires.

“We know it was our weakness last year so that’s really been the focus today. It was all good and positive, there were no issues on the technical side and with 82 laps on the board, everything was achieved."

"For our first day of pre-season testing, overall, I think it was a pretty decent day – it wasn’t perfect, but it was a really decent start,” said team principal Komatsu.

“We have a few operational things to sharpen up as well, just so we run slightly better, but with 148 laps recorded, we now have plenty to build on for Thursday."

Red Bull Max Verstappen Haas Nico Hulkenberg Kevin Magnussen