Nico Hulkenberg hopes that dropping to last in the standings in couple of F1 races is a ‘wake-up call’ to Haas personnel in the factory.
Having had troubles with degradation all-through the F1 2023 season, Haas decided to bring in updates which will take them to a better place in 2024. They took a new direction of sorts with the Austin updates to help them be better with degradation as well.
Considering it was a sprint weekend, not much could be ascertained. Even the Mexico GP weekend wasn’t too great where they did struggle with the tyres. While Kevin Magnussen had a suspension failure, Hulkenberg saw through the whole race.
He was forced to switch onto the medium tyre under red flag and knew somewhere that it will be difficult to hold 10th with the degradation. Hulkenberg feels the old spec would have worked better in Mexico, but that is not the solution to their problems.
“I don’t know, honestly, I’m not sure, I think the old spec, if that had any real good characteristic, it was low speed it was more or less competitive, and this track is obviously quite low speed dominated,” said Hulkenberg to media. “So, I don’t know. I have a feeling that the old spec would maybe even better here.
“But obviously that’s a one-way street for us, with regard to the future,” summed up Hulkenberg, who had a harsh say on the situation. In the last couple of races, Haas has lost eighth to Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri to drop down to 10th and last in the standings.
Hulkenberg firmly believes it is down to Haas not bringing in the updates and it should serve as a wake-up call. “It was inevitable,” he said. “We’re paying a price for not bringing upgrades, for not finding performance. Hopefully it’s a wake-up call to everybody in the factory. Because at this rate you just can’t compete in F1.”
Here’s Nico Hulkenberg sending a message via his drive
Here’s Kevin Magnussen on his crash
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