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.