Excessive brake heat blamed for Magnussen’s crash
Kevin Magnussen's Mexican Grand Prix ended on the 33rd lap, in the TecPro barriers of turn 10 after the Danish driver's off-track excursion. An impressive accident that can be attributed to a failure of his left rear suspension.
It was upon entering turn 10 of the 33rd lap of the Mexico Grand Prix that Kevin Magnussen lost control of the rear of his car and crashed into the wall. On a separate camera angle, one can see the left suspension failing, preventing the driver from turning correctly. It was an impressive accident, but the driver managed to exit the vehicle on his own, without any assistance. This was fortunate considering that the vehicle had started to catch fire at the back. The incident immediately triggered a yellow flag and was quickly reclassified as a red flag due to the extensive damage sustained by the TecPro barrier.
Taken to the medical center, Haas announced that he was fine, but needed to stay under observation for a while. Later, during a press conference, he opened up about his accident and how he felt. « I crashed due to a rear left suspension failure. […] It happened in the wrong place and I hit the wall, so I got a hit on my hands and they hurt a little, but they’re fine ».
« At the beginning of the race, it was better (tire wear)… Then suddenly, I experienced a bigger performance drop than the others and then the suspension gave out, so I don’t know if it’s related ». An incident that proved to be very costly for Haas as Magnussen had to retire, but the red flag and the second start had repercussions on his teammate’s race, Nico Hülkenberg.
Indeed, Haas boss, Günther Steiner, spoke about the incident. « Kevin [Magnussen] had a suspension failure, so we need to understand why it happened, but it seems to be related to the heat. […] We need to check ».
The Haas director then confirmed to TV that it was indeed a heat management issue. « It was a heat problem that caused a suspension failure. It was the heat from the brakes. Kevin was defending and it broke. It was just because of the high temperatures here. We simply need to manage it better. Nico’s car was in good condition. »
A bad operation for the American team as with Ricciardo’s result with AlphaTauri, they find themselves relegated to last place in the constructor standings, just a few points behind the 8th position held jointly by AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo.
