F1 | Haas returns to fly in the top 10 with the Monza wings

In addition to Ferrari and Williams, there is another team that has been able to make the one-stop strategy work and finish in the points, namely Haas. Although the standings only show a tenth place finish for Kevin Magnussen, less than two tenths ahead of Fernando Alonso, there is actually much more to the race of the American team.

The ten-second penalty handed out to Kevin Magnussen, which is added to the two points on his license that will force him to miss the next race in Baku, has made the Dane slip back one position, because on the track, in reality, he had managed to get a nice ninth place after starting from thirteenth place. The regret is also that of not being able to get the most out of Nico Hulkenberg, who was the unwilling protagonist of a race that fizzled out in the very first laps.

After being taken off the track by Daniel Ricciardo before the Ascari, the German’s car went into anti-stall, causing him to slide from the top ten to sixteenth place, also behind Yuki Tsunoda, with whom he then made contact a few laps later, damaging the car. An incident that further compromised a race already marred by incidents during the first lap, leaving only Magnussen in a position to actually score points.

One of the most important aspects of Haas’ effectiveness at Monza against rival teams, including Williams and Aston Martin, was above all the balance between performance in the medium and high speed corners, such as the two Lesmos and the Parabolica, as well as top speed on the straights.

To give you an idea, in qualifying the VF-24 in the various stretches, especially in the final part of the straights where the other teams suffered a bit of derating, reached a 10 km/h margin on the Aston Martin, to settle instead at 4-5 km/h on the Williams. Numbers due both to the nature of the car and to the low downforce package brought to Monza, which in reality recalls what the American team had already tried in Spa and which, however, had not given the hoped-for results. In Belgium, a track on which Haas actually felt very strong on the eve, the VF-24 never found a good window, so much so that it then switched to a more loaded wing to seek a better balance in the second sector, but without finding the hoped-for answers. In Italy, on the contrary, the car found a better window, proving to be competitive already on Friday, and then found a good balance both in qualifying and in the race.

On the other hand, however, equally fundamental was the choice to focus on a single stop, the one that proved to be the most effective over the weekend, as demonstrated by Ferrari’s victory over McLaren and Williams’ ninth place against Aston Martin. The interesting aspect is that if Williams chose the timing of the stop perfectly, with Albon returning to the track right in front of Pierre Gasly’s Alpine, thus being able to lap in clean air, Magnussen, who was a few positions further back before the pit stop, returned right behind the Frenchman, taking a few laps to overtake him.

Passages that could have compromised the life of the tire, because it was seen how ending up in dirty air could be damaging for the tires and for the risk of triggering graining at the front also due to understeer, but the VF-24 managed the tires extremely well. After an initial phase right behind Gasly, which then also led to the ten-second penalty, the Dane managed to overtake the Alpine driver, starting to hunt down Albon, just a few seconds away.

Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Looking at the lap times, you can see how even after the overtaking, Magnussen’s pace was extremely competitive, allowing him to immediately pull away from the Williams driver after the overtaking. Another equally fundamental aspect was the time lost in the overtakings suffered by those who were on the two-stopper, such as Sergio Perez and George Russell: while Albon at times lost even a second per lap, the Dane was much more consistent in his times, so much so that towards the end, again in clean air, he showed a pace 3/4 tenths faster than the Williams.

A demonstration of how, once again, Haas has proven to be effective in tyre management, as on the one hand the advantage in terms of top speed has made the difference, but on the other it must also be underlined how good tyre care has allowed for much more consistency in medium and high speed corners, where the VF-24 has already proven to be competitive.

On the one hand, therefore, there remains satisfaction for a Haas that has proven to be extremely effective on a circuit where it thought and hoped it could do well, so much so as to establish itself as the leading force among the mid-group teams, while on the other hand there is a bit of regret at having collected only one point after having served the penalty with Magnussen.