Guenther Steiner believes that Kevin Magnussen handles the demands of the F1 schedule better now than before his break from the sport. The Dane was left without a seat on the grid in 2021 after Haas opted to replace him and Romain Grosjean with the rookie line-up of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin. However, Mazepin was dropped by the team before the start of the 2022 season amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, resulting in Magnussen making a surprise return to fill the vacant seat. Steiner has been impressed by the job that Magnussen – who has a multi-year contract with Haas – has done in his comeback year, despite some ups and downs for the squad.
Steiner reflects on Haas' mixed fortunes
"I think when he came back in, he scored points [at] the first [race], he had the team behind him," Steiner told media, including RacingNews365.com . "And then I would say, just after the summer break, he struggled a little bit and we don't really know why. But then he came back [in Brazil with pole position], so it's just a little bit that we need to get the ups and downs out of the team. "I wouldn't say only of Kevin. We need to analyse why we have so many ups and downs and we did some of this job. Hopefully next year we can come back more stable [where we] have got a good performance most of the time. "You always have got a bad event or something, but we just need to stabilise everything."
Magnussen has 'matured', says Steiner
Steiner has praised Magnussen for returning to form following a year away from Formula 1. "For him, as well, coming back to F1. All of a sudden he's back in here, it's a long schedule, a lot of races, but he now handles it well," Steiner explained. "And I think I really look forward to next year now." When asked if Magnussen handles things better than during his previous stint in F1, Steiner answered: "Yeah, I think so. He's just matured by getting older. "We all get calmer and see things sometimes a little bit differently. He's most of the time very relaxed about things and now, with the combination of Mark [Slade, his new race engineer] now with him, I hope in the future we will see even a better Kevin."
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