The US racing team Haas did not score points in its third home race in the 2023 Formula 1 season: Kevin Magnussen brought his VF-23 to the finish line in 13th position after 50 laps in Las Vegas, while Nico Hülkenberg retired shortly before the end with a technical defect.
And it is still unclear what it cost Hülkenberg to reach the finish line in Las Vegas. “I guess, [es war] “Something with the drive,” says the German in his first reaction to “Sky.” “It didn’t sound healthy.”
Immediately beforehand, he “lost power” and noticed that “something was wrong” with his car. “And yes, that was the end,” says Hülkenberg.
Top speed is not enough against Williams
Initially, he and his Haas teammate Magnussen found their way into the race well and were even in the top 10 at times. At the time of the failure, Hülkenberg was behind the sister car and far away from any championship points.
Nevertheless, Hülkenberg speaks of an actually good race. Haas was “pretty okay” with the tires and also showed “good pace”. Only the top speed wasn’t enough to make much progress.
Hülkenberg: “It was kind of difficult to get past. The Williams was a dart on the straights today. It took quite a while until we got past Logan [Sargeant] It was only on lap 42 that Hülkenberg cracked his rival, but a few laps later he was out of the race.
Hülkenberg “behind” from the start
But other things didn’t go as planned for the only German in Formula 1: right at the start, Hülkenberg was involved in the incident at Turn 1 and had to take evasive action. “I had to drive around the outside and lost a few positions. So I was behind right from the start,” he says.
Later he had the impression that he could drive faster, “but I was always stuck in traffic,” explains Hülkenberg. “And because of concerns about graining, I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted. That was the limitation. But all in all, I’d say it was one of our better races.”
The latter could have been mainly due to the cool conditions with temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius in the air. As a result, the Haas VF-23 didn’t put as much strain on Formula 1’s standard Pirelli tires as usual. And Hülkenberg says he “felt pretty comfortable” in the car.
Did Haas do anything wrong at all?
Magnussen also says, “our tire wear was good this time and the pace was right, even at the end of a stint.” In his eyes, both were “enough for points,” Magnussen continued. “But we didn’t get any points and now we have to look at what we could have done better.”
Team boss Günther Steiner can’t think of anything specific about this. He says: “I don’t think we did anything wrong. Both drivers fought hard to get the best out of their cars. I think they succeeded. And we stayed ahead of some of our normal opponents.”
Ralf Schumacher says: That’s no use
But “Sky” expert Ralf Schumacher sees exactly this as a problem: Haas is simply floating in the back of the midfield, nothing more.
“The question is always what you want. Do you want to be in Formula 1, do you want to earn money and are you willing to accept all that? That would be the Olympic motto: Being there is everything.”
The former Formula 1 driver now notices a “very great tension” at Haas and believes that the team may have to “restructure” if it wants to make progress in the medium term. Schumacher: “If that’s what you want, then I think it’s clear and recognizable that it won’t work that way and that that’s not enough for the current Formula 1.”