mobile app bar

“I was praying to God”: Kevin Magnussen reveals his major scare with Ferrari’s power unit at Austria

Tejas Venkatesh
Published

"I was praying to God": Kevin Magnussen reveals his major scare with Ferrari's power unit at Austria

Kevin Magnussen revealed he dodged an engine failure during the 2022 Austrian GP. The Dane’s Haas uses Ferrari Power units.

Kevin Magnussen grabbed more points to his name after finishing P8 in the Austrian GP. The Dane has impressed everyone since his return to Formula 1 in 2022. He is ranked 11th in the driver’s championship.

Kevin has now scored points in two consecutive races. The Dane hopes to continue his momentum gathered in Silverstone until the summer break as Haas has new upgrades.

But the Dane received a major scare during the main race on Sunday. Magnussen reportedly had engine issues and he believed the Ferrari Power unit in the rear of the Haas Vf-22 was set to explode just like Carlos Sainz’s.

Carlos Sainz was P3 and was set to overtake Max Verstappen, claiming a Ferrari 1-2 finish at the Red Bull Ring. But in the 56th lap, the Spaniard’s engine violently exploded and caught fire. Sainz was forced to retire.

As Sainz parked his car on the exit to Turn 4, the rear of his Ferrari caught fire, destroying all internal components and chassis. This has sparked major questions about the reliability of the Ferrari Power units.

 

Magnussen described his scenario by saying, “I had a bit of an engine issue all race. I was just praying to God that it wouldn’t blow up, which it didn’t, so I’m super thankful for that so I could finish the race without a problem.”

Haas, along with Alfa Romeo, uses Ferrari Power units. The past weekend’s result shows that Ferrari engines are much faster than Red Bull and Mercedes-powered teams. But their reliability is their Achilles heel. And this could be a major flaw for the teams going ahead.

Also Read: Carlos Sainz frustrated as engine failure blows up hopes of Ferrari 1-2

Kevin Magnussen delighted with the Austrian GP results

Kevin Magnussen enjoyed a fantastic weekend in Austria, finishing P8. On Friday, Kevin managed to qualify for P6 for the Sprint race around the Red Bull Ring. He would score 2 additional points by finishing 7th in the Sprint race.

Regarding the race, he said, “Yes, I feel good. I mean, what a weekend for our team! It’s really been great. Finally, we had a bit of luck and it kind of went our way and you know, after those four, five races recently that weren’t good for us.”

“And now, the last two races we’ve been lucky and especially this weekend we just had a great qualifying, a great Sprint and then a great race, so I’m super happy.”

Meanwhile, his teammate Mick Schumacher enjoyed the best finish of his F1 career. The young German finished P6. Mick managed to qualify for P7, another personal best and narrowly missed out on scoring points in the sprint race.

This means both Haas drivers have secured points for a second consecutive weekend. Haas are 7th in the Constructors Championship and have 34 points in total.

Also Read: F1 Twitter heartbroken after a horrible DNF for Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz at Austrian GP

About the author

Tejas Venkatesh

Tejas Venkatesh

x-iconlinkedin-icon

Tejas Venkatesh is a Motorsports writer at The SportsRush. He started watching F1 in 2007 and fell in love with the sound of the revving V8s. A technical nerd, tejas loves to nerd over the technical beauty only motorsports can achieve. He calls himself a Vettel fanboy and spent the night crying after Hockenheim 2018. Apart from F1, Tejas is an avid Chelsea Fan and loves football.

Read more from Tejas Venkatesh

Share this article