Haas "close" to announcing 2019 line-up

Haas F1 are close to announcing their line-up for 2019, team boss Guenther Steiner has revealed, as Kevin Magnussen looks nailed on for an extension but Romain Grosjean could be axed.

Magnussen has had a great campaign, regularly in the points and at the top of the midfield battle in his American car. For Grosjean not so much, although the French veteran has improved significantly since his initial slump at the start of the season, in which he was the second to last driver on the grid to score any points at all (the last is Sergey Sirotkin, who still is on zero).

Guenther Steiner says that Haas are close to finalizing their line-up and announcing it, but for obvious reasons, he didn't reveal which drivers he was talking about.

"Nothing has been announced, but it's close," Steiner told Danish media outlet BT.

For a while, it seemed like Charles Leclerc was going to be making the switch to Haas as a step up from Sauber, but the Monegasque rookie has been signed directly by Ferrari to replace Kimi Raikkonen from next season onwards.

"We couldn't do anything more," the 53-year-old concluded.