Kevin Magnussen said he did not understand the FIA’s order for him to pit after he sustained front wing damage.
The Haas driver made contact with Lewis Hamilton during the opening lap in Montreal and appeared to be driving with a slightly misshapen front wing.
His engineer came over the radio to tell him the team did not believe it was causing him to lose any performance but soon after, the FIA waved the black and orange flag, signalling that he must return to the pits for repairs.
It was a disappointing verdict given Magnussen’s P5 start and was made all the more frustrating given a Virtual Safety Car was deployed just a lap later.
The Dane would go on to end outside of the points in 17th and was the last of the finishing drivers to cross the line. Speaking after the race, he said he did not understand the FIA call and that cars should be allowed to finish with “scratches” on them.
Lap 6/70: A black and orange flag is shown to Kevin due the damage on his front wing. #HaasF1 #CanadianGP
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) June 19, 2022
“It’s not the team’s decision, the FIA thought that we had to pit with that. It was nothing,” he said. “This is normal, you know, you have to be able to finish the race with a little bit of scratches on your car, you can’t have it in one piece. I get it if the whole front wing is hanging by one or whatever. It was nothing so I don’t get it.”
It was a doubly frustrating day for Haas with Mick Schumacher once again looking in contention for his first points in the sport before a power unit issue forced him to retire in the 19th lap. The German described the early exit as “quite upsetting.”
“We had a PU issue which is obviously very unfortunate because I think we were doing a good race to that point. Our feeling in the car was great and I think that the pace was looking not too bad either. So quite upsetting but we still have a few more races to go.
“I think in terms of pace yesterday but also today, it looked very strong so it’s a good thing. We can we can take it away from here and put it into play for Silverstone.”
On the results, team boss Guenther Steiner said it was “not what we wanted today.”
“Kevin’s race was over when he had to change front wing. Mick was fighting really hard and was getting into the groove but something on the PU let go and that was his day done. Obviously, when you’re dead last it’s just very hard to recover, so we ended up where we ended up.”
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