Kevin Magnussen apologises to Haas after dreadful Canadian GP

Kevin Magnussen

Magnussen apologises to Haas after dreadful Canadian GP

A race to forget for K-Mag.

Matthew Scott

Tuesday 11 June 2019 08:46

Kevin Magnussen apologised to the Haas team after a stormy Canadian Grand Prix which he labelled "the worst experience" of his racing career. After crashing in qualifying, Magnussen endured a difficult race, finishing between the Williams cars at the back of the field.

Magnussen demolished his car after tagging the 'Wall of Champions' in Montreal and hitting the walls on the pit straight.

After an overnight rebuild, Magnussen's car was ready for the race, from a pit-lane start, but he suffered badly and said at one point: "This is the worst experience I have ever had in a race car. Ever."

Article continues under video

As he engaged in a back and forth with race engineer Gary Gannon, team principal Guenther Steiner interrupted them and said "Enough is enough".

Magnussen apologised over team radio post-race and said his comments were not meant as a slight to the team: "We have such a good car, and qualifying is brilliant, we can fight anyone in the midfield – and we've been on 'best of the rest' pole many times this year. So, it's very hard to keep emotions under control in situations like today.

"There was nothing meant towards the team over the radio. They did an amazing job this weekend. I made a mistake in qualifying, and they've been able to build me a completely new car for the race today.

Guenther would like a word, Kevin 😮#CanadianGP 🇨🇦 #F1 pic.twitter.com/JDIpjhbin6
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 10, 2019

"We just have these tyres that don't work in the race for us. It's hard to not be very disappointed, I know the whole team is. They deserve a lot better."

Steiner revealed that the team had used the pit-lance start as a chance to gamble on Magnussen's set-up, which had backfired, but credited the Dane's contrition.

"He apologised to everyone on the radio after the race. It was good he came over [the radio]. Everybody is frustrated, the guys work until three in the morning. It's not something that motivates you and you don't need any more discussions how bad it is.

"What I wanted to avoid is the guys getting beaten down more than they need to be. After the race, he didn't mean to be critical, he just tried to explain a situation that this was a bad situation, but not blaming anybody.

"When you're on the other side of the radio, you don't know that. Maybe I could understand it, but the guys do not know, because they don't know the full story. He apologised to everybody, which is something a grown up does."