Haas F1 team is on Force India's trajectory - Kevin Magnussen

Kevin Magnussen believes Haas's first two seasons show it has the potential to emulate Formula 1's overachiever Force India

Haas has finished both its years in F1 so far in eighth in the constructors' championship, while last season Force India scored its biggest ever points haul as it repeated its fourth position of 2016 despite having the smallest budget in the field.

Magnussen said Haas's form so far compared to Force India's 10th in its debut F1 year in 2008 and ninth the year after showed his team's potential.

"I'm very confident we can go forward and [show that] small teams can do well; Force India are showing that," Magnussen told Autosport.

"If you look at Force India's first couple of seasons in Formula 1, as a new team we've raced and done better, so it's looking good and I think the team is going in the right direction."

While Haas was started up from scratch for the 2016 season by NASCAR team co-owner Gene Haas, Force India was created through Vijay Mallya's purchase of what had been the Jordan/Midland/Spyker team.

But though Haas is a completely new team, it has benefited from a technology sharing partnership with Ferrari.

Force India also achieved a pole position and second-place finish in the Belgian Grand Prix in its second F1 season, while Haas finished in the top six in its first two GPs but has only done so once since.

Magnussen left Renault to join Haas for 2017, and watched his former team improve from ninth to sixth in the constructors' championship.

But Magnussen believes competing with Renault in 2018 is a realistic target for Haas.

"Renault are doing well, but I just feel very good here and I feel that we can improve and take the fight to Renault [in 2018] if we get everything right," he said.