Kevin Magnussen says Romain Grosjean helped Haas understand the problems it has experienced with its car by persuading them to remove one of their updates.

Haas reintroduced its Melbourne-specification aerodynamic package on Grosjean’s car at the Austrian Grand Prix after he told them he wasn’t happy with an upgrade introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix.

While Haas previously blamed tyre problems for their poor race pace, Magnussen said removing their updates “proved that there is also an aerodynamic problem” with the car.

“Romain has been saying from the beginning running the second spec car after Barcelona that he didn’t like the feeling of the car,” Magnussen explained. “Whereas I was less worried about the feeling of the car, I didn’t mind the feeling, but I wasn’t sure whether it was quicker or not.

“We saw in the wind tunnel the numbers suggested that it was faster. But then when Romain went back to the race one package he actually out-qualified me for two races. And then now the last two races we’ve been on the same spec and I’ve out-qualified him.

“So he certainly didn’t have a disadvantage when he was on the old spec. So it’s been an interesting experiment and I think. We’ve learned something from it.”

Magnussen said he would have preferred to run the old specification car at the races Grosjean had it. “If I could go back I would probably,” he said. “That spec looked more consistent and easier to drive.”

The team benefited from taking a ‘big picture’ look at their problems, said Magnussen.

“You learn all the time especially in those tough moments there’s a lot to learn because you’re really trying to figure stuff out. When things are going right you look more in in the small details to try and put it together in a perfect way. When everything is going well you can only gain from the little details.

“Whereas when you’re in a situation like this you need to step back and look at the whole picture. And sometimes that’s quite good too to look in places that you’re not usually looking.”

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2019 F1 season