Magnussen: Consistency crucial to Haas success

Kevin Magnussen believes Haas will enjoy a successful second season in Formula 1 if it can find consistency in its performances.

A stunning start to its debut season saw Haas score two top-six finishes in the opening two races of 2016, before the team struggled in cool conditions at the third round in China. More points were scored in Russia but results then trailed off, with only two more point-scoring finishes from the remaining 17 races.

While the scoring rate slowed, Haas still showed impressive performance as Romain Grosjean reached Q3 in both Japan and Brazil, highlighting the pace in the car when the team could extract the maximum potential. Having moved to Haas from Renault, Magnussen says the key this year will be for the team to unlock its best performances on a more regular basis.

"Consistency is going to be a good target," Magnussen (pictured) told RACER. "What we need to do is find a way of getting more out of our package. I think last year the team had a very good package; the car was a very good car and their challenge was to extract everything out of it and understand it every race because when it worked it was really competitive.

"So hopefully we will have a good package again and our challenge will be to find more consistency. Then hopefully that will bring good results with it.

"I hope we can build on what the team learned last year as they had a very strong season in the first year. It's going to be a great challenge to improve on that, so hopefully we can."

Having only received confirmation of a seat at Renault in February last year, Magnussen says he has been able to focus on his own preparations more during this off-season.

"It's been a nice winter – I've been able to just look forward to the next season and not worry about any negative things. I've been able to look forward with a positive mindset and prepare. Every day getting up in the morning you know what the plan is and you can work towards that, so I've enjoyed my time this winter.

"I would have liked to start working with Haas earlier but contractually I wasn't allowed so we had to wait until after New Year. Now we're working and preparing, it's going well and I'm looking forward to it."