Month: April 2019

Haas, Cream of the Crap

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is a road race through the city streets of the ancient walled city Baku which juts on a peninsula into the Caspian sea.

The day would belong to Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas. By lap 3 the Mercedes Silver Arrows of Bottas and Hamilton were able to seperate a 5 second gap. Bottas Started on pole and held his first position through the first few turns as his teammate was challenging to pass. Once Bottas secured P1 he would never look.

Kevin Magnussen started in P12 and would finish 13th. Haas split the strategy for their two drivers. Magnussen was on a 2 stop strategy. He started on soft tires hoping to find early pace. He never would.

Romain Grosjean was on a one stop strategy. He started on medium tires and would not pit until the 34th of 51 laps. Two laps later Grosjean retired from the race with brake issues.

So again Haas has failed to score any points and are holding at 8 points total. Leading Toro Rosso with 4 points and Williams with 0.

Haas has risen… they are the cream of the crap!

Next stop…. Spain!

Haas Drops

Mercedes find perfection

The 2019 Chinese Grand Prix began with a whiff of hope for the Haas F1 Team. Both Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean started the race on soft tires and a row 5 lockout starting 9th and 10th respectively.

It seems that the Haas chassis is just not as competitive as it’s mid field competitors in Toro Rosso, Alfa Romeo , and Racing Point. And the Ferrari power plant is just not up to the task of defeating the horses driving Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton in their Silver Arrows. The AMG Mercedes Team continued their 2019 campaign by being dominant all weekend. But for the Haas Team, they dropped to 10th and 11th by the end of lap 1 when Sergio Perez jumped 4 spots in his Racing Point to 8th position. Haas failed to collect any points with Grosjean finishing 11th and Magnussen 13th.

Both Haas cars started on soft tires. Kevin Magnussen pitted on lap 35 and switched to medium grade Pirelli tires. He was able to work his way up to 11th from 17th, but lost pace by lap 46 of the 56 lap race and settled to his aforementioned result of 13th. Romain Grosjean was on a two stop strategy but never threatened.

Valtteri Bottas was able to capture pole on his quest for his first Formula 1 championship. But the day would belong to Lewis Hamilton as Bottas did not get a strong start and his teammate beat him to turn one. It’s how Mercedes finished the day.

But for the Haas Team, the prospect are not bright. The team is not finding any race pace and are not benefiting from their qualifying efforts. The Ferrari engine package appears to be stronger and more reliable than the Renault of the Red Bull, but there are just not enough prancing horses in that power plant to catch the Germans.

With all of their competitors scoring points, Haas drops to 8th position in the constructors standings. Magnussen has all of those 8 points. Grosjean is yet to ring the bell. The next race is Azerbaijan on April 28th. We’ll see you then.