Kevin Magnussen believes a change in setup has been one of the core reasons behind his and Haas’ recent return to form.
After scoring in Saudi Arabia, Magnussen endured two difficult rounds in Australia and Azerbaijan before returning to the points with 10th place in Miami.
“On my side, at least this year, we’ve been, especially in the first couple of races, experimenting a lot,” Magnussen exclusively told Total-Motorsport.com. “So we get to FP1, and we hit the track with a setup that is like an experiment.
“Many times, it didn’t work. So by FP3 or just before qualifying, go back to something we knew, and that means you don’t get a good rhythm with a car.
“For the last couple of races, we’ve started with a setup we feel more confident [with]. This allowed me to just get a really good rhythm and fine-tune things for qualifying and the race.”
Miami result a great confidence booster
The point in Miami have given Magnussen and Haas a newly found source of confidence at a time when the midfield is closer than ever.
Heading into Monte Carlo, Haas currently lies seventh in the constructors’ championship on eight points, six points behind Alpine and McLaren, who are joint fifth on 14 points.
“Yeah, [it] gave [us] good confidence,” said Magnussen. “We got P10 in a race where nobody had problems. There were no yellow flags in the race, no safety car, nothing to help us.
“We were tenth best car on that day. [So the result] was a good, good confidence booster.”
