Haas confirm double-brake failure in Austrian GP

Haas have confirmed that Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen’s retirements in Austria were both down to brake failures.

Magnussen started the race from P16, but in a reversal of last season the Haas grew in performance throughout the race with the Dane making it up to P13.

Magnussen was just outside the top 10 battling with Esteban Ocon when he went straight on at Turn 3 and spun.

It turned out this was down to a brake failure, and team-mate Grosjean went for two spins, also brake-related, before returning to the garage to retire on Lap 50.

Speaking to the Haas website, Magnussen said: “I was being told to do more and more lifting to save the brakes. By the end of it, I was just doing everything I could and still they blew up.

“That happened when (Esteban) Ocon launched an attack on me, I think he took the cooling and that was the moment they went. It was always right there on the limit.

“It wasn’t anticipated, it’s not like we knew we’d have big problems with the brakes. We knew we’d have to do some lift and coast for the brakes, but not all in that way. I might have had some debris in the ducts I guess.

“It’s a shame, we were P11, and if it hadn’t been for all that brake saving I might have had a decent pace.”

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Grosjean added: “The brakes went – we had been nursing them since lap one, looking after them.

“Obviously, something is not quite on the right level on the cooling, so we have to work and sort that out for next week.

“I think one of the main concerns is the pace, it was a very tricky car to drive today, especially in traffic. We’ll put our heads down and see what we can come up with. We need to come back next week with a better solution.”

Team principal Guenther Steiner said the drivers were actually happy that the car was “raceable”, and believes they missed an opportunity.

“Obviously, it wasn’t the day we wanted today. We had brake issues because of overheating on both cars – it was the same thing,” he said.

“That’s what took us out of the race when there was a good possibility for us to get into the points. But ‘if and when’ didn’t work today.

“The good thing is, the drivers seemed to be as happy as they could be with the car. They feel that the car is raceable, so it just feels like we missed an opportunity. If we work hard, we can get into the points going forward, so that’s what we’ll be doing.”

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