The cause of Magnussen’s scary race-ending Mexico City GP shunt revealed

Haas boss Guenther Steiner has confirmed that the cause of Kevin Magnussen’s race-ending crash at the Mexico City Grand Prix was “heat-related”, resulting in suspension failure.

Connor McDonagh

30 Oct 2023

Kevin Magnussen (DEN) Haas VF-23 crashed out of the race. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 20, Mexican Grand Prix, Mexico — Kevin Magnussen (DEN) Haas VF-23 crashed out of the race. Formula 1…

Magnussen suffered a heavy crash on Lap 34 of the race in Mexico, resulting in a brief red flag stoppage as marshalls were forced to repair the barrier.

The Dane’s rear-suspension broke when coming up to the sweeping bends in the middle section of the track.

Magnussen’s Haas was completely destroyed, capping off a dismal day for the team.

Steiner said after the race: “With Kevin, he had a suspension failure, so we need to dig into why that happened, but it seems to be heat related – we need to check. It was a tough day again, but it’s not all negative.”

The damaged Haas VF-23 of Kevin Magnussen (DEN) Haas F1 Team, who crashed out of the race. Formula 1 World Championship, — The damaged Haas VF-23 of Kevin Magnussen (DEN) Haas F1 Team, who crashed…

Reflecting on the incident, Magnussen revealed that he got “a knock on his hands” from the crash.

“I crashed after having a rear left suspension failure,” Magnussen explained. “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.

“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 tyres, but I don’t know if whatever caused the failure had an impact for a while beforehand.”