Magnussen says Haas driver clashes "blown out of proportion"

Kevin Magnussen believes his relationship with Haas Formula 1 teammate Romain Grosjean has been “blown out of proportion” following a number of clashes between the pair.

The duo collided in May’s Spanish Grand Prix, before enduring further clashes at Silverstone and again at Hockenheim. After repeated talks with both his drivers following the string of recent incidents, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner that the team could be forced to introduce team orders in a bid to combat the problem.

But speaking ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, Magnussen said he feels the rivalry between the pair has been overhyped.

“I think in the heat of the moment we are blaming each other on the radio but what people don’t see is that we get together between the races to talk it through and try and be constructive and move on in a constructive way,” Magnussen said.

“Apart from those incidents on track I feel that we have a pretty good working relationship. Romain is a cool guy and we actually have a good time when we go to work so it’s being blown out of proportion a little bit. I know you guys love a bit of a conflict but it isn’t as bad as it looks.

“In the heat of the moment you always feel like you are in the right and then you analyse things after and see that it was probably more level and not as big a deal as it felt like on track.

“At the end of the day I don’t think it’s such a big deal. We will try everything we can to not have these issues again.”

Asked why he thinks the clashes keep happening, Magnussen replied: “I don’t know really.

“I think it’s happened a few times this year and it happened in Silverstone and had a consequence for both of us, we punctured and I think that was pretty unlucky to have both of us punctured from such a small contact and there was no bad intentions from either of us.

“We came together and punctured and then later in the race you see other cars flying into each other, flying over the track and nothing happened. You’ve got to look at that as well to say it is just bad luck really. That’s pretty much it.”

Teammate Grosjean added: “I think the relationship, people could think it doesn’t look good but actually the relationship is really good.

“We find each other once a week or so and sit down and look at what we can do better and just make sure that it’s not happening again. We have the same car so obviously we find ourselves side-by-side on track more often than with a Mercedes for example.

“Honestly the relationship is very good. I like working with Kevin and we work well together and we get on nice.”

Both drivers said they would be happy to respect any rules of engagement issued by Haas.