Haas F1 Team Hits Rock Bottom, Falls to Last in Constructors Championship Standings

The U.S.-based Haas F1 Team fell to the basement of the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship after a tough Mexico Grand Prix weekend, with Kevin Magnussen suffering a heavy accident.

Haas has rarely gone well at the high-altitude Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, and pace-wise the team was once again no match for the top half of the field. Nico Hulkenberg clung to a top-10 spot for most of the race but dropped down in the closing stages, eventually finishing 13th.

Of more concern was a frightening accident for Magnussen just before mid-distance. His VF-23 suffered a rear-left suspension failure as he rounded Turn 8 and Magnussen was pitched into a sudden impact with the barriers. Magnussen was able to extricate himself from the wreckage and was fortunately given the all-clear after a precautionary visit to the medical center.

“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,” said Magnussen. “We have to investigate a bit more what exactly happened as it just gave up. 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.”

Ricciardo’s result moved AlphaTauri up the standings at the expense of Haas, which is now last of the 10 teams.

“It was a tough day again, but it’s not all negative,” said team principal Guenther Steiner. “Nico was in a good position to get points, but then with the red flag, which we caused ourselves, we couldn’t keep the tires in the last stint. Our car can’t keep life in the tires 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.”

F1 Constructors' Championship Standings

1. Red Bull 731

2. Mercedes 371

3. Ferrari 349

4. McLaren 256

5. Aston Martin 236

6. Alpine 101

7. Williams 28

8. AlphaTauri 16

9. Alfa Romeo 16

10. Haas 12