Kevin Magnussen’s crash in Mexico has been decoded: The brakes were running so hot that the temperature sensor went in and the suspension was soft-boiled
Kevin Magnussen was the big absentee on the media Thursday before the Brazilian Grand Prix. Not as a result of his accident on Sunday in Mexico, but because of a canceled flight: “He said he was flying here via Bogota. He was just somewhere in Mexico,” team boss Günther Steiner excused him for the FIA press conference and added in typical Steiner style: “What am I supposed to do if he’s stuck in Mexico? After all, I’m not the travel coordinator. “
Magnussen was lucky in Mexico when he suddenly took a sudden left turn in a right-hand bend on lap 32. At first, everything pointed to a broken rear left suspension. The suspicion was later confirmed. However, the reason was that the brakes were far too hot in the high altitude of Mexico City, which softened the suspension.
What could not be heard on the TV broadcast was the decisive radio message from the race engineer shortly before the crash: “Okay, Kev, be careful! We have to get the brake temperatures back under control now, we have to get the brake temperatures back under control!”
But by then it was already too late. A few seconds later, the Haas crashed. The post-race investigation revealed that Magnussen’s rear brake was so hot that the temperature sensor gave up the ghost. “Then nobody knows what happened,” says Steiner. “And then the suspension broke. That was the reason. The suspension collapsed.”
Haas admits: Radio warning came too late
In hindsight, Steiner knows that the radio message came “too late”. At least they learned something from the accident: “If the sensors fail, the temperatures are too high. It was too late. But when you no longer have sensors, you think of the worst possible scenario. That’s what happened, but it was just a bit too late.”
There is no technical adjustment to the brakes for the Brazilian Grand Prix, but Steiner announces: “We just have to be more careful when the temperatures get into this range. Then the driver has to brake more with the engine, or take his foot off the gas earlier before the corners. These are the things you can do.”
For Haas, the accident on a back-to-back flight from Mexico to Brazil meant an additional burden. At least they were lucky in misfortune: the gearbox was not damaged and the chassis “has already been rebuilt,” reports Steiner. “We only had to replace one side box opening – a part that is glued in there. That is new. The chassis itself is fine. “
Steiner: Compliments to the mechanics
Steiner compliments his mechanics for the speedy repair: “The air intake was already repaired on Sunday evening so that the glue could dry. When the car arrived here, the glue was already dry. People are prepared these days. The parts were already prepared. That was no problem at all.”
When the Ferrari engines were to be fired up for the first time on Thursday in Interlagos, “both cars were ready. Nobody had to work overtime,” praises Steiner and sounds a bit like the “tough guy” Franz Tost when he says: “Formula 1 is like a well-oiled machine these days.”
Steiner gives an example: “In Mexico, we had a major problem with refilling the oil tank. It worked, but then it didn’t work again. If you don’t know where the problem is, it becomes difficult. That’s why we had to break the curfew there. Because we had replaced everything, including the wiring. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. “
“But if you can’t change the oil in the race, then you actually have to stop the car to protect the drivetrain. That’s a bigger problem. But if you have an accident, even with damage to the chassis: you can change it, you have the time in a week,” explains the South Tyrolean.
“Luxury”: mechanics can sleep in a single room!
Nevertheless, a “triple header” USA-Mexico-Brazil was “quite a challenge” for the logisticians: “A cargo plane arrived four hours late on Monday or Tuesday. That held everything up. But nobody had to work overtime. Everything is so well prepared,” says Steiner.
He doesn’t think that the workload for the mechanics has become too high: “You get used to a lot of things, and everyone is now staying in good hotels, usually even with single rooms. They try to do better, to reduce the pressure when the mechanics are not working in the pits. So that you never panic. “