In two years, Haas Motorsport has gone from having only two very new drivers to now having one of the oldest line-ups in the race. Nico Hulkenberg came back after not driving full-time for three years and he partnered with Kevin Magnussen for the 2023 season. On Nico’s debut race in Bahrain, he placed 10th on qualifying and retained his same position at the beginning of the Saudi Arabia race due to Charles Leclerc’s penalty.
Nico Hulkenberg has done a better job than Kevin Magnussen in both races they took part this year. However, when they were competing in Jeddah, Dan was able to do even better, bringing home the first point of the year for their team by finishing 10th. When asked about it, Steiner said that Nico gave them what they were expecting and he could see it right away as Nico performed better in qualifying than Kevin did.
Kevin isn’t unhappy that Nico didn’t put up a fight because he knows they just have to get there (somewhere). It wouldn’t have been great if they were 15th and 18th, which would be similar to a really bad situation. However, in Bahrain they did pretty well and Kevin knows it’s possible to get where they need to be. Guenther Steiner (Team Principal at Haas F1 Team) and Nico Hulkenberg (also from Haas F1 Team) made this statement after the race.
This year, many teams have been having difficulty getting the most out of their cars due to factors like tyres and temperatures on the track. In addition, Haas is almost reaching its spending limit, and if this happens, it might become really tough for them because last year there were a lot of costly crashes involving Schumacher. An important thing that Hulkenberg’s experience can do is help in these areas.
He said that’s why we took him. We noticed the new rule and decided to go in that direction.
There are 10 really great teams competing, all with similar finances, awesome drivers, and rock-solid technology.
Everything is getting closer and we need someone like a driver to help us get the best results right away. We wanted an experienced driver who can take us in that direction so we’re really happy with what happened.
After there were issues in the past with their line-ups, Hulkenberg and Magnussen have been told to be careful when racing against each other. The two of them understand this rule and show their maturity by accepting it.
Magnussen said, “At Haas, we don’t get into any arguments and quarrels with each other. I can try to stay ahead of someone but I can’t block anyone from passing me. In short, it means that we should all work together for the team and not just for ourselves.”
Hulkenberg agreed and said, “I think this is an excellent rule that we have in place. We don’t want to make things harder for each other. Our goal is to get the highest performance possible and score as a whole group.”
“I think we did okay. I got ahead of him, and nothing bad happened.”
Other things that have been happening:
– A racing team with the same number of men and women wants to enter F1 (a type of car race) for 2026.
– Porsche decided not to join the F1 race any time soon.
– McLaren hired an experienced aerodynamicist from Aston in order to improve their chances of success.
