MANAMA (Reuters) – Haas boss Guenther Steiner stated the U.S.-owned Formula One group’s return to form in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix couldn’t have been scripted any higher.
Kevin Magnussen completed fifth for the group on the Sakhir desert monitor on Sunday.
The end result was the outfit’s highest end because the Austrian Grand Prix in 2018, their greatest season in F1 but.
It took them from final in the ultimate standings of 2021 to third after this season’s opening weekend, behind solely powerhouses Ferrari and Mercedes.
“If you concentrate on the final two years after which coming again like this, you can’t write a narrative like this,” Steiner informed Sky Sports F1.
“The guys on the racetrack the final two years, that they had powerful instances however stored their head low. We can all be very proud. I’m pleased with them.
“It’s simply implausible,” he added.
Haas have endured a troublesome time over the previous couple of years. They ended final season as the one group not to rating some extent.
More lately, they had been caught up in the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and had been pressured to sever ties with Russian racer Nikita Mazepin and his oligarch father’s potash-producing title sponsor Uralkali.
They then misplaced half a day’s working on the last pre-season check in Bahrain due to freight delays after the plane carrying their cargo, together with their automobile, hit a technical snag.
But the efficiency of their 2022 automobile, into which the group had ploughed all of their assets, seems to have handed them the break they wanted.
“Things occur in life,” stated Steiner.
“A month in the past it was a totally totally different situation and now unexpectedly we’re fifth.”
Magnussen, who joined the group in 2017 however was changed for 2021 together with group mate Romain Grosjean in favour of an all-rookie line up of Mazepin and Mick Schumacher, was re-hired on the eve of the season to change the sacked Russian.
“It’s so good to be again in this place,” stated the 29-year-old, who endured a two seasons of battle in 2019 and 2020 with the group.
“It was only a totally different story to in the previous.”
Schumacher solely simply missed out on making it a double factors end for the group, though his Eleventh-place end was a profession greatest end result for the son of seven time world champion Michael.
“From right here on I believe he’s hungry for factors as properly,” Steiner stated.
(Reporting by Abhishek Takle; enhancing by Toby Davis)
