Magnussen wants 2019 F1 rules to end “joke” fuel saving

Haas Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen hopes rule changes brought in for the 2019 season will end “extreme and ridiculous” fuel saving. 

The Dane vented his frustrations by dubbing the sport “Formula Fuelsaving” after being disqualified from last year’s United States Grand Prix for exceeding the maximum permitted fuel use during the race. 

For the upcoming season that limit has been increased by 5kg and Magnussen hopes the revision will enable drivers to attack more, along with Pirelli’s more conservative approach to its 2019 tyre selections. 

"We have a bit more fuel, which is a nice thing,” Magnussen said during Haas’ livery reveal event in London on Thursday. 

"The most frustrating thing is having to save too much fuel. A little bit of saving is fine, there's always been a little bit of fuel saving in F1, but for me fuel saving the way we had to do it a couple of times last year is a joke.

"The tyre thing is another thing, in Mexico it just didn't work for us, we were going eight seconds slower than what we could do with a new tyre in the race, and that's also very frustrating. I just hope we won't get these extreme scenarios where you're not racing anymore.

“Having to manage in those extreme and ridiculous ways that we had to do a few times, whether it's fuel or tyres, is a bit stupid. I hope that situation is altered.”

Haas teammate Romain Grosjean said it was difficult to predict how much of an impact the new rules - including tweaked aerodynamic regulations - will have on racing, with mixed views being expressed by teams up and down the grid. 

"I said in the past that I wasn't very optimistic about the change making racing better, but I hope I'm wrong, I hope the racing is going to be better," Grosjean explained. 

"More fuel, yes, but is the car going to have more drag because of the wider wings? Then we're going to be in the same situation on some grands prix.”

The Frenchman added he knows how the new wider and simpler front wing feels after sampling it on Haas’ simulator, though he refused to budge when pressed for more details about how he thinks it will effect racing. 

“It is a big video game,” he said. “As long as you haven’t got the car on track and you can confirm the correlation it’s very difficult to pull everything out of it. 

“We’ve put it on, been running, seen what we have to see and I think the next big step is to get the correlation from the circuits to see if it’s actually real or not. 

“We’re still at an early stage on the simulator but I can’t really tell you exactly what it’s going to be like.”