Kevin Magnussen has said that Haas has “learned a lot” during the course of the 2019 Formula 1 season, despite having a difficult year.

Haas have struggled to understand their car all year, having gone in the wrong direction with the development of the car and the team have found themselves with a car that is fast over a single lap, but struggles over the course of a full race distance.

The team were struggling so much to understand their car that they have reverted back to the spec that they used in the opening round at Melbourne, and their performance has increased as a result.

Haas Team Principal, Guenther Steiner has admitted that he should have “listened more” to his drivers throughout the season, but Magnussen has said that while it has been a disappointing year for the American team, they have learned a lot as a result.

“I think the team has learned a lot this year, not in terms of results, but in terms of performance.” Magnussen said.

“Overall, the team has done a really good job this year and really stepped up.

“Obviously, we’ve had a difficult car, but that’s really how the team has proved itself this year, in terms of how we’ve worked with the car and worked around the problems we’ve had.”

Although this year’s car has been Haas’ worst since they joined Formula 1, Magnussen believes that his team have handled the situation well and that the attitude displayed by Haas can bode well for next season.

“I think we’ve had a much more difficult car than, say, 2017.” added the Dane.

“I think we’ve handled things much better and gotten more out of it.

“Also, it’s allowed us to be much better prepared for next year.

“We’ve come a long way and we all feel pretty excited about next year.”

Magnussen has stated that due to the difficulties Haas had in understanding this year’s car, the team switched its development to 2020 early and that this should help them be more prepared when the teams return to pre-season testing in February.

“We all feel we need to take a different direction next year, which has obviously already been taken.

“The development of next year’s car is well and truly underway – it has been for a little while.

“I wouldn’t say we gave up at all on this year’s car, but we knew we had to shift focus onto the 2020 car instead of trying to save this year’s model.

“That’s better for us than if we’d tried to turn the 2019 car around.”