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Kevin Magnussen has backed himself to claim a podium with Haas F1 in the ongoing 2022 F1 season. The Dane has 12 points to his name after joining the team mere days before the start of the campaign.
Having impressed in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Magnussen is willing to bet on himself to land Haas F1's first-ever F1 podium with the new VF 22.
During a conversation on the Beyond The Grid podcast, the 29-year-old shared his aspirations for the season, saying:
“It’s certainly a dream – I think about it quite a lot. We are in the fight to be the best team after the three big ones. If you are that, then you are the seventh [fastest] car on the grid if everything’s normal. So it doesn’t take that many cars to have problems to then get a podium. Sometimes Mercedes look like – at least in the beginning of the season – they won’t be so far ahead of us, so it wouldn’t take a lot of luck.”
Kevin Magnussen went on to add, saying:
“I don’t think we can drive onto the podium just by pure pace, but last year especially we saw many teams get on the podium that weren’t regular podium finishers. I think it’s realistic. It’s not totally unrealistic to dream about it. I don’t think you can expect it because we are not fast enough to get there just on pure pace, as I said, but I’m dreaming about it. I’m putting my money on it.”
Magnussen has already helped Haas score more points in the first two rounds of 2022 than they managed in 2020 and 2021 combined. With 20 potential races still left on the calendar, the Dane's wager could end up paying dividends for Haas.
"The structure is different to other teams" - Kevin Magnussen on what sets Haas apart from other F1 teams
Kevin Magnussen feels the smaller, closer-knit nature of the Haas team helps them deal with obstacles and issues better than the bigger F1 teams.
Having started more than 80 races with the American outfit, Kevin Magnussen knows the workings of the team inside and out. Speaking in an interview before the Australian GP, the Dane said:
“The structure is different to other teams. We outsource a lot of stuff but it just means it’s very straight communication throughout the whole team and I think that plays to some advantages. When you have a problem, you can easily address it and once you address it, you can easily adjust, whereas with bigger teams I think it takes longer to turn things around.”
Meanwhile, Haas may be subject to an investigation by the FIA into similarities between their car and that of their power unit supplier Ferrari. It remains to be seen if this will have an impact on the VF-22 when we go racing in the 2022 F1 Imola GP on April 24.
