Haas have confirmed that the suspension failure which dumped Kevin Magnussen out of the Mexico Grand Prix was triggered by a “heat issue” with the Dane’s brakes.
Magnussen’s VF-23 suddenly snapped and pitched the Dane straight into the TecPro barriers at Turn 9 on Lap 32, triggering a red flag for the clean-up operation and barrier repairs.
Magnussen was able to remove himself from the car unaided just moments before a fire erupted at the rear of the heavily damaged Haas.
Replays showed that Magnussen had suffered a rear left suspension failure as he traversed the high-speed esses after running in 17th.
Prior to the incident, Magnussen had been under pressure from Logan Sargeant and had shifted his brake balance rearwards in an effort to fend off the American.
Sargeant found his way past Magnussen a few corners before his eventual accident, which was caused by heat from the brakes leading to a suspected track rod failure.
Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner told Autosport: “It was a heat issue which caused a suspension failure. It was heat from the brakes.
“Kevin was defending, and it tipped over. It was just because of the high temperatures here. We just need to manage it better. Nico’s car was OK.”
On his return to the paddock, an unharmed Magnussen said: “Yeah, suspension gave up. I haven’t seen the team yet so perhaps they have some more information, but the rear left specifically, lost a lot of grip a couple of laps before and then it gave up.
“I think it was going alright. At the beginning of the race it was better and suddenly I fell off more than the others and then the suspension gave up. So I don’t know if it’s related, maybe there’s something there but I need to talk to the guys.
“It happened in a bad place and I hit the wall, so I got a knock on my hands and they hurt a little bit, but they’re fine.
One lap before the crash, Magnussen was seen running over the astroturf and kerbs at the exit of the final corner having spent much of his afternoon in traffic.
“Before that, it was going okay, I was stuck in traffic for a long time and cooked my tires, but I don’t know if whatever caused the failure had an impact for a while beforehand,” he added.
Haas team-mate Nico Hulkenberg looked to contend for points but had to settle for 13th at the chequered flag after struggling to hold onto his tyres.
“Nico was in a good position to get points, but then with the red flag, which we caused ourselves, we couldn’t keep the tyres in the last stint,” Steiner conceded.
“Our car can’t keep life in the tyres as other cars. We could fight for almost the whole distance, but almost isn’t good enough. Otherwise, it seems like the whole team performed well and Nico drove fantastically to try and get something.”
The failure to score points means that Haas now dropped to the bottom of the Constructors’ standings as a P7 finish for Daniel Ricciardo saw AlphaTauri draw level with Alfa Romeo.
