Magnussen expects 2017 cars to be ‘drivers’ cars

The new, faster cars being introduced this season could see a more mixed up grid, according to Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.

Though he’s not underestimating the challenge the American team will face, Magnussen believes the additional grip supplied by the wider tyre will allow drivers to find their limit, which would work to Haas’ advantage.

“If they are as fast as we all predict and hope for then it will be more of a driver’s car that you can push,” Magnussen told Sky Sports.

“With the old cars and last year’s cars it’s been more of a compromise. Your driving style was very compromised with tyres, limited grip and a lot of power, so a lot of wheel spin. [The 2017] cars will hopefully be more about finding the limit.

“It’s hopefully going to be more of a challenge to get the car to the limit and then the compromise will be less of a worry. That’s my hope anyway. It’s more enjoyable to drive a car that you really have to push hard and extract everything from rather than thinking all the time what is the right compromise.”

Whilst many people expect Mercedes to continue to dominate in the new era of faster cars and wider tyres, Magnussen thinks Red Bull might be able to challenge them this season.

“Red Bull will be the big surprise,” he said. “So that should be interesting to have not only one team fighting for the wins. Hopefully Ferrari will be stronger as well.”

Even though he expects a driver’s talent to be more important, Magnussen still thinks Haas will be at a disadvantage compared to bigger teams like Red Bull and Ferrari. Without the manpower to analyse the data, the Dane expects the team will be facing a tough challenge to move up through the field. Haas finished eighth last year in its debut season, ahead of Renault, Sauber, and Manor.

“Our biggest challenge is going to be to extract everything and understand it properly, because we are a small team, and we don’t have enough people yet to throw analysis on everything and get everything analysed. So we will have to work really hard to try and get the most out of what we have, which I hope and think will be a good package.”