31-year-old driver admits his team are likely to start very slowly in 2024

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Haas driver Kevin Magnussen has admitted that expectations are low for the start of the 2024 season.

After a difficult campaign last year, Haas decided to make a big change and replace Guenther Steiner with Ayao Komatsu as the manufacturer’s team principal.

Speaking to the team’s official website, Kevin Magnussen has now given his take on what to expect from Haas next year.

Magnussen tempers expectations ahead of 2024 season

The hope at Haas is that things can only get better after finishing bottom of the Constructors’ Championship in 2023.

They decided to replace Mick Schumacher with Nico Hulkenberg and the German produced some fine performances in qualifying.

It earned him points in the Sprint Race in Austria, but ultimately their tyre management was so poor that they could never sustain any meaningful pace during races.

Guenther Steiner’s time in charge of the team finally came to an end after leading them into F1 in 2016.

His replacement Ayao Komatsu has already suggested that the team’s development has been slower than he would have liked over the winter.

Magnussen has now admitted that expectations are low for the start of 2024 but believes they’re on a better development path and can see much bigger improvements as the season goes on.

The trouble is that their rivals will also believe that they can continue to build on the cars turning out at pre-season testing in Bahrain this year.

It means they’ll have to take much more pronounced steps forward to overtake the teams around them.

Haas looking to improve on disappointing 2023

Talking about the upcoming season, Magnussen said: “I think expectations are being managed quite well this year.

“I think some years there has been some unrealistic optimism going into seasons and I’ve been affected by it as well.

“Certainly, Ayao [Komatsu] is very clear that he doesn’t think we’ve moved out of last year’s position yet but he’s clear in that he sees the development trajectory looking a lot stronger, so he’s actually optimistic that we can move forward through this year.

“The entire field is so close together and I think last year we completely ran into a wall in terms of development.

“We couldn’t really break that barrier until we shifted the concept, and this year is looking a lot better. Expectations are low, to begin with, but high for the season as a whole.”

While Magnussen’s expectations for the start of 2024 are low, he’ll be desperate for that to change as the season goes on considering his future in Formula 1 hangs in the balance.

His contract runs out at the end of the season and after being outperformed by Hulkenberg last year, he needs to prove to Komatsu that he deserves another contract.

With Ollie Bearman lurking in the background hoping to drive for the team in 2025, the young Brit – who has previously worked closely with Magnussen – could end up replacing him on the grid.