Kevin Magnussen has revealed how a sudden improvement in his Haas VF-24's brakes was behind his recent rise in results in the last two races.
Magnussen has struggled to match Nico Hulkenberg since the two became teammates last season, but he has led in the previous two weekends.
The Dane gained points in the Sprint race in the United States with seventh place, then confirmed this with seventh place on the grid in Mexico.
Having more than doubled his 2024 points total in the last two events, Magnussen attributed his turnaround to discovering greater confidence in the VF-24's brakes.
“I don’t want to jinx it, but it looks like there have been some changes to the car.”
“Of course the upgrade worked well, but that's for me and Nico. In the last two races I've been very, very confident with the car. I guess the challenge from here is to make sure I maintain this confidence for these last races.”
“There are some changes to the braking. I don't want to go into too much detail, but some changes to the brakes also seem to have had a positive effect. So yeah, I've been very confident and hopefully I can remain so.”
Magnussen explained how a delay between touching the brakes and reacting had hampered him entering corners until this change.
“This season when I hit the brakes they have a bit of a delay and then they bite after a little while after hitting the brakes. So I had the initial feeling that I wasn't hitting hard enough on the brakes. the brakes. Compared to Nico, my maximum braking pressure is always much higher.”
“I think I just need to feel the brakes activate immediately and that has really hurt my confidence on the racetrack. It throws you off in the corner when you already feel uncomfortable with the brakes. It so helped me a lot.”
Magnussen is optimistic that Haas has resolved its braking discomfort, but he wants to test the changes on more circuits before he is certain it has been eradicated.
“This year the brakes have been very inconsistent. I feel like we're going to fix that. That's what seemed to be the case in the last two races. A change was made, which I really felt. It was very positive. I hope it's not related to the temperature. I hope it's real. But it certainly coincided with this change.
“Sometimes you go to tracks that suit the car perfectly. I think Austin and Mexico are quite different tracks, but they both have the same level of downforce.”
Magnussen's return came too late to save his seat at Haas, as the team signed Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman.
Pressed on whether he was frustrated that the car had become more suited to his tastes at this point in the season, Magnussen concluded: “Yes, of course. I would have liked to have had this change at the beginning of the year, that's for sure.”
“That's how it is. Now it's important to capitalize on the opportunities, I want to help the team secure 6th place in the championship. When we score eight points as a team in a race like the other time, it's very important to us.”
