Haas scored points with both cars in the sprint race in Austin and might have done the same in the grand prix had it not been for a slip-up on Kevin Magnussen’s radio.
Magnussen was running ninth when the team called him in for a second pit stop. He eventually took the chequered flag in 11th place, every car ahead of him having one-stopped.
Afterwards Magnussen was reticent when asked what had gone wrong. “Not sure you can call it unlucky, but that’s the way it is,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “Didn’t get any points today, I think we had a good chance to do that but didn’t manage to.”
“It’s hard,” he added, “you come out of the car, you go straight to talk to you guys, it’s better I go talk to the team first.”
Magnussen was called in for his second pit stop by racing engineer Mark Slade on lap 38, at short notice:
| Slade | So, Kev, the situation is we are concerned about the drop-off on your tyres at the end and that’s why we were making the suggestion we did. We think it will be the same or a better outcome. We’re going to have to swap with Nico when he gets in your DRS. He’s not quite there yet. |
| Slade | Lawson 12 seconds behind on fresh tyres. |
| Magnussen | What’s his lap time? |
| Slade | He’s only just come out of the pits. |
| Slade | Sector two was three tenths quicker than yours. Correction, five tenths quicker than yours. |
| Slade | Box, Kev box, you must box now. Box. Box. |
| Magnussen | Box, box. |
| Slade | Mode… |
| Magnussen | What happened? |
| Slade | It’s okay. We’re in good shape. Mode RS, mode RS for the start. You’re in good shape, Kev. |
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Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu admitted the team had slipped up when Magnussen was summoned in for a second stop, suggesting they should have left him out. Magnussen’s exchanges with his race engineer later on in the race bear that out:
| Magnussen | Can you just explain what you mean by ‘good shape’? |
| Slade | Sorry Kev, that was earlier. |
As does their post-race chat, in which they were keen not to give too much away about what had gone wrong:
| Slade | Okay, Kev. Leclerc… |
| Magnussen | Interrupting No, no, no. It’s okay. It’s okay. |
| Slade | Yeah. I was going to give you the run-down. |
| Slade | I’m sure you’re confused about what happened at the end. We will obviously go through it with you at the end when you get back. |
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While Nico Hulkenberg made a single pit stop and…
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