Haas reveal Magnussen struggled with Ferrari PU issues

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Haas' Kevin Magnussen on track during the Austrian Grand Prix. Spielberg, July 2022.

Haas' Kevin Magnussen on track during the Austrian Grand Prix. Spielberg, July 2022.

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen battled his way to eighth place in Austria, despite an ongoing Ferrari power unit issue.

The Danish driver came home in eighth place from a seventh-place grid slot, having been overcome by Haas team-mate Mick Schumacher, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and McLaren’s Lando Norris during the Grand Prix – gaining positions back due to retirements for Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

Magnussen had held his position ahead of Schumacher early on, with the race unfolding in similar fashion to Saturday’s sprint qualifying event.

However, Schumacher eventually managed to get past Magnussen on the run down to Turn 4 before slowly easing away from his team-mate in the latter half of the race – helped by an ongoing engine issue on Magnussen’s VF-22.

With Ferrari’s Sainz the latest victim of a power unit issue from the Italian marque, Magnussen was fortunate that his issue didn’t result in a failure – Haas brought home a double points finish for the second race in a row with Schumacher in sixth and Magnussen in eighth.

Haas revealed after the race that Magnussen had struggled throughout the entirety of the race but, when asked for comment by PlanetF1, a spokesperson said that no information about the nature of the problem was yet available.

Kevin Magnussen taking off his race suit in the paddock. Melbourne April 2022
Haas driver Kevin Magnussen taking off his race suit in the paddock. Melbourne April 2022

Having had a run of bad luck with neither Magnussen nor Schumacher scoring points for five consecutive races between Miami and Canada, a beaming Magnussen was still thrilled to have scored points again despite the problems.

“What a weekend for our team, it’s really been great,” he said.

“Finally, we had a bit of luck, it kind of went our way after those four or five races recently that weren’t good for us. It’s hard not to get a little bit down about it but the last two races we’ve been lucky and we’ve had the pace, especially this weekend.

“I had a bit of an engine issue all race so I was just praying to God that it wouldn’t blow up, which it didn’t, so I’m super thankful for that so I could finish the race without a problem. We just had a great qualifying, a great sprint, and then a great race, so I’m super happy.”

With Magnussen’s fortune going rewarded with a second consecutive points finish, team boss Guenther Steiner said the weekend couldn’t have been any better.

“A fantastic result for the team today with a double-points finish and back in P7 in the championship,” he said.

“There was one little issue with Kevin’s engine, but everything went as perfect as it can be. Thanks to the whole team for a big effort.”