Kevin Magnussen’s major admission as unwanted streak stretches to nine races

Henry Valantine 05 Sep 2023 3:00 PM

Kevin Magnussen has admitted that he is in “one of the weakest” periods of his career, given the struggles Haas are having on track.

He and team-mate Nico Hulkenberg finished a lap down during the Italian Grand Prix at the weekend, and were last of the finishers on the road on an attritional afternoon for Haas as their tyre struggles in race trim continued.

Hulkenberg was less than complimentary about the team’s current fortunes, believing the car in its current state to be “not point worthy” without upgrades, while Magnussen’s streak without a top-10 finish has stretched to a ninth race.

Kevin Magnussen admits he’s in ‘one of the weakest’ periods of his career

Haas team boss Guenther Steiner admitted he was “pretty p*ssed off” with his drivers after both damaged a new front wing each at Zandvoort last time out, with that weekend followed by an uncompetitive time all round at Monza.

While Hulkenberg has generally managed to qualify better than Magnussen, the pair have both struggled to score points by comparison in race trim, with the Dane’s last points coming back at the Miami Grand Prix in May.

When asked by media including PlanetF1.com at Monza if he is going through one of the most ‘frustrating’ moments of his career, Magnussen responded: “Certainly one of the weakest, I think it seems.

“But, you know, I still believe that the team is in a stronger place than it has been. You know, it’s just a paradox that we have probably one of the weakest cars we’ve had with the strong foundation that I see in the team.

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“I think we can do a lot better, and I think we will do a lot better, so it really is a patience game.

“It’s about really sticking it out with what we have at the moment and waiting for better things.

“The work is being done in the background, and we just have to be patient until we can bring those parts to the car.

“At the end of the day we’ve got a job to do and we have to crack on until we get those parts, and we can’t cry about what we’ve got at the moment, we’ve just got to work with what we have.”