F1 | Haas: double points finish, but there is one big regret

Haas has returned to achieve a double points finish since the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix, therefore almost 2 years. Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen completed the Top 10 at the Australian GP with ninth and tenth place also thanks to the accident involving George Russell on the last lap of the race.

For the American team it is also the second consecutive points finish after Hulkenberg's in Jeddah (it hadn't happened for a year), therefore all the members of the team would have the more or less hidden right to celebrate an unpredictable start to the season, but in more than positive sense.

Instead, Ayao Komatsu, team principal of the team since this winter, seems not to want to settle. Of course, the points brought home in Australia by his drivers made him happy, but in his words there appeared a veiled sense of anger at strategic errors that compromised the possibility of obtaining an even better result. A strong signal, which suggests a change in mentality for a team that for too long seemed resigned to occupying the lower parts of the Constructors' standings.

It all started in the first lap of pit stops, when Kevin Magnussen found himself undercut by Alexander Albon and overcut by Esteban Ocon. The Haas wall was unable to react promptly and this caused the Dane to lose two positions which, all things considered, proved decisive.

“When Albon made his pit stop, he had undercut us. So we shouldn't have made the pit stop the next lap. But we did. So Albon undercut us and we let him do it without any right. Ocon, on the other hand, overcut us and we lost that position too. This is not good”, explained the Haas team principal.

“Our race pace was better than our flying lap shown in Melbourne, but if nothing happens in the top positions, it is very difficult for us to score points. But our job is to always be there and be ready if a window opens up And in Australia we almost did everything perfectly.”

“I say almost because we could have beaten Tsunoda. We missed the opportunity at Kevin Magnussen's first pit stop: at that point we lost 2 positions and it shouldn't have happened. Apart from that everything went wonderfully. The pit stops went very well and our drivers were super too, because they kept racing for each other during the second stint.”

Komatsu explained how Magnussen immediately understood that Hulkenberg could have a better pace than him in the second stint due to the difference in compounds available to the two. Nico was on Medium, therefore softer tires than those of the Dane. So the speed with which the change of positions was allowed then led Hulkenberg to enter the points, making very good use of the Mediums.

“Kevin was on hard tyres, Nico on Mediums due to the Virtual Safety Car. Nico had a better pace. Unfortunately Kevin's race was already compromised, certainly not because of him, but because of us. Kevin would have had every reason to to be pissed off, but no. When we asked him to swap positions with Nico's he did so immediately. He knew how important it was and how important it is for us.”

Komatsu's idea is that if the team had not made a strategic error, it could have led Magnussen to fight with Yuki Tsunoda for eighth position (which later became seventh at the end of the race due to the penalty given to Fernando Alonso).

“I think Tsunoda had better pace than us, but if we had done perfectly on the first lap of pit stops, then kept the pace we showed in the second stint, we would have fought him much closer. But Yuki deserves compliments , he had a good pace. The truth is that Kevin should have had the chance to fight with him until the end.”

“Melbourne is a very specific track. I don't know if we have really solved our problems with tire degradation. We will probably pay in Suzuka because of the fast corners, where we know we have problems. We know well now what the car's weak points are and we can improve, but in the past we have made mistakes in this sense. We will have to be better”, concluded Komatsu.