If Haas’ Kevin Magnussen had a crystal ball that told him he would never win the world championship, he would pack up and move on to something else in his life.

Next week in Australia, Magnussen will embark on his fifth season of Formula 1, his third with Haas after his two formative years with McLaren and Renault.

Oddly, the Dane’s best result to date in F1 came at his very first Grand Prix when he finished third with McLaren in Australia in 2014.

He knows Haas will be racing in the mid-field in 2019, a fair length behind the sport’s Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull trio of front-runners.

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But that prospect is dampening the 26-year-old’s belief that he can one day win the world title.

“If I knew that we’d only finish fourth and that I’d never win a world championship, if you could see into the future and you told me ‘you won’t win ever’ then I’d go to do something else that I can be successful in,” Magnussen told GP Fans last week in Barcelona.

“None of us come here and work our asses off to finish fourth, but that’s the target this year.

“You can’t say ‘OK I didn’t win so I’ll go home’, of course you need to try but you need to understand there is a process and a road to success.”

Last year, Haas enjoyed a good battle at the top of the mid-field with rival Renault.

While the US outfit was ultimately beaten by the French squad in the Constructors’ standings, Magnussen viewed the fierce fight for the ‘B-Championship’ as intense as racing at the front for an outright win.

“There were a few teams last year that were so close together so it almost felt like a real championship where everyone was fighting against each other,” added the Dane.

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“Haas started [talk of] the ‘B championship’ because there were these three teams that were so far ahead of everyone else. And then you had five or six teams that were actually very, very level and were taking turns each race to be best of the rest.

“That’s how the whole championship should be, but it isn’t.

“It’s very, very tough in that midfield and it was much more difficult to finish seventh than to win at times [last season] because there was so much more competition to finish seventh than at the front.”

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Liberty Media chief executive Greg Maffei believes that former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone is to partly blame for F1’s current difficulties with the sport’s race promoters.

Liberty is in the process of negotiating contract renewals with Spain, Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Mexico.

However, promoters are now driving a hard bargain, unwilling to extend their agreements at all cost and searching for better overall deals with F1’s commercial right holder.

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Maffei understands the fundamental reasons behind the promoters’ demands, but the American executive also points an accusatory finger at Ecclestone.

“Bernie had done a very good job, arguably too good a job, and had drained the promoters,” Maffei told financial analysts at a Deutsche Bank conference.

“And we got a lot of blow back, partly because we’re public now and they can see the prices, and also partly because Bernie suggested to a lot of them that they were overpaying. That didn’t help the cause.

“Exacerbating that are governments trying to pull back subsidies, in Mexico, other places – Spain. So that creates some challenges.”

Formula 1 will venture into a new territory – Vietnam – next year, and a second race in the US is still in the cards as growth remains Liberty media’s priority.

Maffei admitted however than an expansion of the calendar with the right blend of traditional and new races will require a delicate balancing act.

“We remain working on Miami, but there are obstacles to a lot of that,” he added.

“We’ve looked at other alternatives in the US, including Las Vegas. We’ve looked at other alternatives in Africa. We’re trying to solidify some of the western European races and bring those in.

“That core fanbase is strong, and there are some in the works that may very well come to pass in those traditional western European places.

“You’re always trying to balance both solidifying where you are strong, or core, which is historically western Europe, and then adding other things, like expansion to Vietnam, potentially a second race in China, potentially a race in Africa.

“We’re not yet prepared to announce any, but there’s a careful mix or blend of where you want to grow and where you want to solidify.”

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Robert Kubica was left ruing another hard day at the office after his qualifying session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ended prematurely in the safety barriers at turn 8.

Kubica had just cut the kerb at the previous corner and damaged the left-front suspension of his Williams, sending it careering across the track where it embedded itself nose-first in the TechPro barriers.

“I clipped the inside with the front left which pushed me into the wall,” Kubica told the BBC afterwards.

• Bottas beats Hamilton to Baku pole after Leclerc crashes

“I cut too much on the inside,” he elaborated. “Clipped the inside wall and then that launched me on the outside of the corner.

“It’s a very narrow place, but we know this, and unfortunately it happened,” he added. “[It] is the narrowest point on the Formula 1 calendar.

“It’s the worst place you can make those kind of evaluations,” he sighed. “Unfortunately I paid quite a high price, that’s how it is.”

The 34-year-old wasn’t looking to make excuses for what was to blame for the accident. “The temperature is not helping us, but this was a driver mistake and we will evaluate the car for damage.”

According to the car’s sensors, the impact was heavy enough that Kubica was required to attend a check-up back at the medical centre before he could return to the team garage.

“It’s all OK,” he reported. “It’s not a huge impact but of course the medical centre they had to – for precautions – do all the tests. I feel good so no problem.”

While Kubica was cleared to return to driving duties, there was initially some doubt as to whether the team would be able to find him a car in time for Sunday’s race.

The team had already been forced to use their spare car and a significant proportion of their limited spare parts to rebuild George Russell’s care after the Briton as involved in a bizarre accident in Friday practice when a drain cover came lose and destroyed the underside of the FW42.

But an official team statement confirmed that they would indeed be able to repair Kubica’s car in time for the green flag tomorrow.

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“We are currently working to fix the front end of Robert’s car,” the team stated. “We will replace both front corners, brakes and steering column on his car following the accident.

“But we have replacement parts available for all of this.”

“We are assessing the damage on Robert’s car but expect to be able to make the necessary repairs ahead of tomorrow’s race,” added senior race engineer Dave Robson.

It means that Kubica will line up in 19th place on the grid, with Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly required to start from the pit lane due to a weighbridge infraction during Friday’s afternoon practice session.

Kubica’s team mate Russell will be just ahead of him on the grid in 18th place having set a faster time in Q1 before the Pole’s accident triggered a red flag.

“I went into qualifying quite blind after missing all the running yesterday,” said the rookie driver. “Baku is a circuit that requires a lot confidence for you to maintain your momentum.

“From a personal perspective, I felt comfortable during qualifying and got the most out of the package.

“It’s been a tough weekend and will be a long race tomorrow, but we must stay positive and keep making the most of the situation.”

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A major force at the top of grid before the lights went out in Bahrain on Sunday, Sebastian Vettel felt defeated by the time the checkered flag concluded a disappointing race for the German in Sakhir.

Yet it all started on a positive note for the Ferrari charger whose perfectly timed get-way from the grid coupled with Charles Leclerc’s lousy launch put him in command at the outset.

Unfortunately, that was about as good as it got for Vettel who was quickly overhauled by his team mate before later falling into the clutches of Lewis Hamilton.

‘Today was not our day’, says unlucky Leclerc

The pair fought intensely with the reigning world champion getting the upper hand over his rival who then spun while trying to hang on to the back of Hamilton.

The costly blunder and a lost front wing forced Vettel to pit, with a meager fifth-place finish salvaged at the end of a day.

“I think it’s pretty clear that if you start at the front and don’t finish at the front you can’t be happy,” said Vettel.

“I really struggled at the beginning of the race. Then on the medium tyre, maybe it was a bit better, but overall not the pace that I wanted to have today, so not sure why.

“And then obviously on top of that, I had the mistake with the spin, so not a good evening.

“I just lost the car very suddenly and once I spun then it was obviously too late. Unfortunate that we had so much damage with the tyres that it caused the front wing to fail so yeah, not great.”

Regarding his team mate’s commanding performance, at least until the gremlins crept in, Vettel bowed to Leclerc’s superiority.

“It was his race to take today, so unhappy for him and for the team,” he added.

“A disappointing day overall, starting from the front and not finishing there is not what we wanted.”

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says a team’s ability to understand Pirelli’s thinner tread tyres and adapt to their characteristics are big factors of performance this season.

In a bid to reduce risks of overheating and blistering, Pirelli has reduced the tread of its tyres this season, a change that has thrown a wrench into the works of teams this year as everyone struggles with the narrow operating window associated with the new rubber.

Haas’ Guenther Steiner is up in arms with how the US outfit’s 2019 contender – which showed great promise in pre-season testing – has now lost its performance on long runs as it struggles to warm up its tyres.

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Racing Point technical director Andy Green also feels that this year’s rubber is a massive component of a car’s performance on race day.

“Unfortunately it changes from track to track, asphalt to asphalt. We are having to about them every time.” Green told Auto Motor und Sport.

Wolff agrees that teams have been forced to start from scratch when it comes to unraveling the mysteries of Pirelli’s latest tyres.

“I think there’s actually a wider operating window [with the 2019 tyres] but I think it’s the usual learning slope,” said Wolff.

“When you’ve had a tyre for a long time, all your data and all your simulations are based around a certain compound and a certain structure.

“Then suddenly the tread changes from one year to the other, all your learning is basically not so relevant anymore.

“It’s also about adaptability, the team that learns quickest to understand the new circumstances.”

So far, Mercedes appears to have an edge over its rivals with regard to that learning process, although Wolff pointed to the team’s deficit to Ferrari in FP3 in Baku as evidence that the German squad’s advantage is tentative at best.

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