F1 | Haas, Kevin Magnussen: “We could have done more, but what a pleasure to drive at Mugello”

The Mugello track seems to be an achievement in the paddock, with many drivers enthusiastic about the Tuscan circuit. Not to be outdone were the two Haas drivers who, despite not exactly competitive times, enjoyed Mugello, an old school track, as Kevin Magnussen defines it. The Danish driver was the only one of the American team to have lapped in both free practice sessions, finishing seventeenth in the morning and nineteenth in FP2. Different situation for Grosjean who instead, due to an electronic problem, had to park his VF-20 after just five laps. Last in the afternoon, but the Frenchman set a promising twelfth time in the first free practice session.

"I think we're in a decent position, there's potential in the car – commented Grosjean – we just need to work on three turns in particular, corners one, twelve and fifteen, we're not perfect in those parts of the circuit, but the rest of the lap is good. The sensations were the same even in the only attempt I made in the afternoon. Obviously it's not an ideal situation, not being able to ride on a new circuit, not being able to do a simulation on the race pace, but also on the fastest lap. I don't have much information for tomorrow. The circuit is really very beautiful actually. It's very fast, smooth and for us drivers it's a pleasure to ride. From a competition point of view, it's a bit complicated, but for now let's not think about it, let's just think about being fast. I think with these cars we are five seconds faster than the last time I drove here. Every curve you would like, every ideal curve, you can find them all here at Mugello".

In fact, during the last test at Mugello, Grosjean managed to set the best time, exactly in 2012.

In 2012 Magnussen was still far from Formula 1 (the Dane made his debut with McLaren in 2014), but he too showed great enthusiasm for Mugello.

"This track is really beautiful. It's extremely fast, and so are the corners, it's really a pleasure to drive here. Obviously, looking at the standings, the day could have gone better, but at least I enjoyed the track. It didn't seem like we had a great pace today. The track is very physical, very hard on the neck with all these fast corners. They aren't exactly linear, so you can't just rest your head on one side like on other circuits. It will be hard, but I will make it. It's an old school track and that's a good thing. There are no escape routes on asphalt, so any mistake can be costly. This adds charm to this track".