Haas to announce two new 2021 drivers in Portugal?
Oct.21 - Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean have now been told they will not be re-signed by Haas for the 2021 season.
Citing 'a number of sources', Ekstra Bladet newspaper claims the news should be announced ahead of this weekend's race in Portimao.
The small American team did not comment.
But it is believed Haas will oust its current drivers and instead field the heavily-backed Russian rookie Nikita Mazepin alongside a Ferrari academy driver in 2021.
Luigi Perna and Mario Salvini, writing in Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport, believes Mazepin's teammate will be Mick Schumacher.
That is because Ferrari wants Alfa Romeo's current driver Antonio Giovinazzi to stay next year, even though it had been rumoured that he would be replaced by Schumacher.
"In 2021, the influence of Maranello guarantees him and Mick seats at Alfa Romeo and Haas," the Italian correspondents wrote.
With Kimi Raikkonen expected to also stay at Alfa Romeo, it puts in doubt the rumoured F1 debuts of Ferrari juniors Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman next year.
Haas boss Gunther Steiner told Sport1 that he wants the team's 2021 drivers to also commit for 2022.
"One of the things I want to be sure of is keeping the 2021 drivers in 2022 as well, because there will be completely new regulations," he said.
Ekstra Bladet's sources believe Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez were never under consideration for seats at Haas. Hulkenberg is instead hoping for a seat at one of the Red Bull teams.
Perez and his Mexican backers, meanwhile, are being linked with Williams, replacing the Mercedes development driver George Russell.
Williams said it will not comment on rumours.
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I have a feeling its a mistake that haas lets magnussen and grosjean go if it is because there know the haas cars and have a good working experience whit the hole team and haas needs some there can report back about the car and so
So if I was haas I will think about keeping one off the drivers
Neither of these 2 drivers have any potential for improvement so why keep wasting time on them
Totally agree! Grosjean and Magnussen do not deserve to be there. The car is very bad, that's true, but it doesn't help that both dirvers are crashing in half of the races. It is very difficult to see if the upgrades worked if they don't put more millage in the races. And don't forget how many times they crash against each other...
Arghh come on - that just shows you’re ignorance in the sport and pure facts. GRO and MAG have not crashed more than other drivers on the grid. In fact MAG has one of the lowest consumptions of spare and crashes on the entire grid!! You have to accept that they’re both pushing the limit of the car to 105% in every race to extract every possible chance of getting points.
With 2 rookies in the cars, Haas better stock up on spare parts - specially with “Torpedo Mazepin” behind the wheel. That guy is P. Maldonado version 2.0 and I don’t mean that in a good way.
They should keep MAG as the experienced driver and pair with Mick S.
Totally disagree - Magnussen needs a better car and he will always be in top 5.
And you think putting 2 rookies in the cars is gonna improve Haas’ situation?? How long will it take before they’re even at MAG/GRO’ level?
I can understand letting GRO leave, but cutting MAG is just stupid.
2021 is a development year, where the team needs all the feedback it can get from experienced drivers, in order to build the best possible car for 2022 - and they want to leave this feedback in the hands of 2 rookies who has never even driven an F1 car before??? Completely mental and just goes to show, that this only has to do with MONEY and nothing else. The long term vision for Haas F1 is lost.
Congratulations Haas F1 (or should I say the coming Williams 2.0 team) with your horrible driver decision...!
Sad to see, if Magnussen leaves F1. IMO we haven't seem the full potential of him in F1. A fantastic starter and always hard fighting to get the best out of the car. A true racer. I should like to see him in a much better car, and he would shine. That.s for sure. Its very difficult to shine in a very slow car. Put Kevin Magnussen in a Red Bull. He would give Verstappen a healty competition,. and Red Bull as racing team would be much stronger.
Does anyone care what the only American team in F1 does?! Nope, I didn't think so.
I'm not going to trash either driver, as anyone who can race in Formula 1 is a master driver, and deserving of respect. Haas just shows what it is like to not understand what MB does, you need a Racer, a Car and a Team of highly talented technical people to make a WINNING TEAM!
This is not NASCAR crash up derby, this is REAL Racing!
I'm an American and even I could give 2 shits about Haas lol
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