Haas gets tangled up in China
The Chinese Grand Prix was once again a complicated weekend for the American team, which for the second consecutive time finished outside the points.
While the two American single-seaters managed to qualify 9th and 10th with Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean respectively, the Haas drivers saw any hope of bringing points home go up in smoke due to a race pace significantly inferior to their competitors and a likely too ambitious two-stop strategy.
At the very beginning of the race, the two drivers of the American team are called back to the pit. The Soft tires do not hold on the VF19, and it is therefore advised to switch to a two-stop strategy. Unfortunately, the Mediums offer no pace, and both Haas cars lose all their duels. Fitted with the range of Soft tires at the end of the race, the degradation is such that Grosjean cannot catch Albon’s Toro Rosso, while his garage neighbor falls to Lance Stroll.
🏁 CHECKERED FLAG
Not quite enough to get into the points today.
P11 @RGrosjean 🇫🇷
P13 @KevinMagnussen 🇩🇰@LewisHamilton wins another #ChineseGP! 👏#HaasF1 #Race1000 pic.twitter.com/hl2ACKBr4G— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) April 14, 2019
A scenario that is reminiscent of Bahrain where Haas, qualified 6th and 8th, returned home with zero points. This suggests that while the American team’s cars have a relatively high raw pace, the team struggles to capitalize on it. This is supported by the fact that during the race in Shanghai, Grosjean set the 8th fastest lap and his Danish teammate the 10th. A situation much more positive in comparison to competitors like Renault and Alfa Romeo.
A situation that greatly annoys Kevin Magnussen: “I didn’t have the pace today, so we need to work on race pace. Qualifying has gone well all year. So far, we just need to figure out race pace – it’s the most important to be good. There’s work to be done. I don’t really understand it at the moment, we all need to understand it. It’s not easy. It’s frustrating to see that we have a good car, which can qualify well, yet we can’t convert that into race pace.”
Haas F1 Team is now 6th in the standings behind Renault and Alfa Romeo, tied on points with McLaren and only 1 point ahead of Racing Point.
#ChineseGP Recap 🇨🇳
Summary of today’s #Race1000 in Shanghai 👉 https://t.co/toDyzZp8s4 pic.twitter.com/1R8UFOmLLs
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) April 14, 2019
