In the round-up: Kevin Magnussen says he is confident Haas can find more speed this season.
In brief
Haas have ‘broken status quo’ in search for performance – Magnussen
Haas driver Kevin Magnussen says he is confident that the team will be able to find more speed out of their car this season after a disappointing end to 2023 saw them finish last in the championship.
“We need a better car,” Magnussen admitted. “Last year we weren’t been able to find better performance even on the drawing board. So we need to break that, which I think we have already.
“Things are looking better back at the factory and kind of broke that status quo that we had for too big a part of the season. So I think things have already changed.”
Berger’s backing convinced Red Bull of Lawson’s talent
AlphaTauri CEO Peter Bayer says that retired F1 driver and multiple grand prix winner Gerhard Berger helped to convince Red Bull to give Liam Lawson an opportunity.
“Gerhard is a big fan of Liam’s racing style,” Bayer told Speedcafe. “He said, ‘He’s the one. He’s going for the gap, and he’s fast’.
“Helmut [Marko] was also very convinced by his natural speed but Franz [Tost] was initially a bit skeptical. He said, ‘Looking at his results, I’m not sure’. If you purely look at the results, he wouldn’t be a standout driver, but he has done a lot of racing, and in different categories, and again and again he was showing there was a spark. Helmut was 100 percent ‘that’s the guy’.”
De Mevius beats Sainz Snr as Dakar rally begins
The first stage of the annual Dakar Rally was surprisingly won by Toyota driver Guillaume de Mevius ahead of Audi’s Carlos Sainz Snr, who suffered multiple punctures over the almost 400km stage.
World rally raid champion Nasser Al-Attiyah and multiple WRC champion Sebastien Loeb suffered setbacks during the stage and are both outside of the top ten positions.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
‘Businesses that lost millions of dollars in revenues because of the Formula 1 car race in the Strip corridor in November have banded together to ask Clark County government, the LVCVA public tourism agency and F1 for financial compensation for their losses. ”We don’t need the F1. The F1 needs us,” Jay’s Market owner Wade Bohn told…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…