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In 2017, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were the two drivers of a Haas F1 team that surprised the world. In 2018 they together achieved fifth place in the constructors’ championship for a team that was already in its third year. By 2020 all that optimism had faded; Haas F1 scored a total of 3 points and both Magnussen and Grosjean were eliminated from F1 at the end of the season.
The loss of Formula 1 is the gain of American racing. While Haas F1, the only American team in this sport, is lagging behind a season’s best result from 13th to six races, Magnussen and Grosjean have made waves at IMSA and IndyCar respectively, a wave of success that Magnussen is now giving the chance to compete directly with Grosjean in his very first IndyCar race.
Magnussen, who recently secured his maiden win for the new Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi program, will replace Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren SP, who has not yet been approved for racing after a devastating accident last weekend. It will be his first start for a McLaren-affiliated program since the team replaced him with Fernando Alonso after the 2014 Formula 1 season, and while it’s just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it’s a pivotal opportunity, both McLaren and . to show the other elite teams on the IndyCar grid that he deserves a chance to fight for wins and championships in the series. One-off drivers struggled during the modern IndyCar era, but Magnussen’s F1 and now sports car experience makes him one of the more interesting drivers to have had a chance on the series in recent years.
Grosjean, on the other hand, is only just beginning to adapt to the daily rigors of an IndyCar ride. He has already occupied both pole position and second place on the Indianapolis Road Course in five races, but more importantly, he has been consistently competitive and fast in a Dale Coyne Racing car that is generally not considered a particularly good opportunity. That hasn’t always produced results as his first two races have been more respectable than impressive and his two strong qualifying performances in the Belle Isle doubles last weekend ended in heartbreak, but it’s an encouraging sign that Grosjean is on the road to success.
This may be the only chance the two have on an IndyCar stage, but the four-year-old teammates are unlikely to compete in any other series. Kevin Magnussen is already signed to Peugeot’s factory line-up for the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the explosion in LMDh registrations ahead of the 2023 race will undoubtedly put Grosjean on the shortlist among many of the new manufacturers joining the battle for sports cars racing’s ultimate honor, with a likely opportunity to compete in the 24-hour classic if its IndyCar schedule permits.
Grosjean and Magnussen will both race in cars that can win Sunday’s Road America race and should they be in factory cars at Le Mans in 2023 they will win that race too. Haas F1 may fail to score this season.
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The post Haas F1’s entire lineup for 2020 is in IndyCar this weekend first appeared on monter-une-startup.
