Pre Race

IMOLAAAAAA 🇮🇹 😎 🍕

The season’s first race on European soil is ahead of us, and Kevin Magnussen and the rest of the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team are in full swing at Imola. The beautiful Italian track hosts the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which mark the seventh round of the championship. As the 2023 version was cancelled due to flooding in the region, it will be the first Imola race since 2022, where K-Mag scored a point in the Sprint Race.

“It’s a great track, and one of those I was watching as a kid and always wanted to race at and racing a Formula 1 car in Italy is something special. The track is difficult to overtake on, not impossible, but difficult so it will be more about qualifying than the average track. It’s going to be the first good opportunity we must collect proper aero data on the car that we’re running now, so that’s going to be very useful and a good experiment,” said Kevin Magnussen.

Imola has delivered memorable races since it hosted the first Formula 1 race in 1980 – but some less joyful than others.

“You can’t help but notice the history when you visit this circuit, some memories more sad than others with Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna’s accidents 30 years ago. That weekend was a dark moment in the sport that we all love so much, but it also resulted in a increased focus on safety,” said Kevin.

DID YOU KNOW THAT … Since 1988, the official name of the 4.9 km long Imola circuit is Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, named after the famous car wizard and his son. Located in beautiful surroundings near Maranello, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is also known as the home race of the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One Team. The hilly track, with lots of fast corners, has made it loved by many drivers.

Quali Day

TIME TO GO RACING

Tough qualifying for Kevin Magnussen who got blocked by a competitor on final and most important lap. However, the #20 Haas F1 car is fueled up and Kevin is ready to go racing at Imola. Everybody cross your fingers!

“I don’t know what’s going on this year, but it keeps happening and eventually it’s got to stop. We don’t seem to be doing anything different compared to others in terms of timings, but out of seven qualifying sessions, we’ve had traffic in five that’s caused us problems on exactly the lap that needs to count. It’s not an easy track to overtake and it looks like a one-stop race – so we’ll see what happens,” says Kevin.

Race Recap

“It felt like a good race”

Gaining six positions, the biggest mover of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola was Kevin Magnussen! Despite starting far back on a P18, the Admin By Request powered Formula 1 driver finished P12, only 1,1 seconds form his teammate, Nico Hulkenberg – overtaking a lot of competitors on his way through the field.

“We didn’t get anything for free in terms of cars ahead having problems, so P12 for us meant we really earned that by overtaking cars on track and fighting for it. It felt like a good race, we just started too far back,” said Kevin Magnussen.

“We showed today that the pace was there, and we were gaining on our competition in the midfield, but our starting position that meant we didn’t score points today. Let’s se what we’re able to do in Monaco.”

Yes, Monaco is next! One of the season’s most historical and prestigious races, the Monaco Grand Prix, takes later this week, May 26, in the narrow and challenging streets of Monte Carlo. Get ready!