Kevin Magnussen has admitted that the atmosphere at Haas is the best it has been in some time coming into the new season, their first without Guenther Steiner.
Steiner was relieved of his duties as team principal over the winter, with Gene Haas finally having enough of the team's consistent poor performances.
The Italian had been with the team since their inception in the sport back in 2016, but had not overseen a finish higher than eighth in the championship since 2018.
He has been replaced ahead of the upcoming season by Ayao Komatsu, who had also worked alongside Steiner since 2016.
Guenther Steiner was Haas' team principal from 2016-2023Ayao Komatsu has replaced Guenther Steiner as Haas team principal for 2024Ayao Komatsu worked alongside Guenther Steiner for many years at Haas
Haas' change of atmosphere
2024 represents a big year in the future of Gene Haas' Formula 1 team, with both veteran drivers Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg out of contract at the end of the season.
Haas will need to decide whether to stick with experience or opt to go down a more youthful path, with former driver Mick Schumacher still waiting in the wings for another opportunity in F1.
Magnussen believes that the team are shaping up well heading into 2024, noticeably mentioning a change of atmosphere since Steiner's departure.
“We can be happy about testing. The objective was to work on long runs with high-fuel, racing-related stuff addressing our main issue from last year, and I think we’ve made progress," he said.
"I don’t want to raise expectations – I think we still have a lot of work to do – but we’ve gotten somewhere with the work we’ve done over the winter and these days at testing.
"I’m looking forward to seeing where we’ll be in the race, that’s always the final test to see if we’ve made progress or not. Everyone’s in good spirits, there’s a really good atmosphere in the team and an atmosphere I haven’t felt for a while.”
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