Nico Hulkenberg reckons the recent positive results for Haas can certainly be termed as a ‘hell of a comeback’ after recent struggles, as Kevin Magnussen adds.
Haas has already crossed the points tally of what it managed in all of 2023 season in just 12 rounds this year. They sit at 27 so far against the 12 they managed in all of last year. And it comes after the pre-season chatter of not doing well in the first half at least.
During the winter, it didn’t re-sign Guenther Steiner and made Ayao Komatsu as its new team principal. The Japanese did not raise up hopes in the lead-up to the 2024 F1 season and took a cautious approach of ‘wait and watch’, which has worked wonders.
They have had struggles in the high-speed section but slowly they have picked up pace on that side with steady updates and it has resulted in good haul of points, especially against the likes of Alpine, Visa Cash App RB and Williams.
Even to the extent of matching Aston Martin at times. Hulkenberg already terms it as a ‘hell of a comeback’ from one of the smallest F1 teams on the grid. “They’ve [Haas] just done a good job,” he exclaimed to media. “They’ve worked well, they’ve worked clean. And every time when we put stuff on the car, it kind of works to expectation and the correlation is also not bad.
“So obviously, we’ve made some changes to our technical department and aero department last year and end of last year. The result is this now that it kind of works better and more efficiently, it seems. Nobody expected – even when we started, it was better than the expectation. But then, we kept up with everyone, did the same job, maybe even better.
“It’s also a little bit weekend dependent and track dependent. So, we’ll have to wait and see, but no, it’s definitely a hell of a comeback and a story,” summed up Hulkenberg, whose teammate Magnussen hailed the updates made by Haas as well, which is somewhat working better than even what top teams have brought.
There is a sense of encouragement certainly within the team at a time when rumours about potential link up with Toyota is doing rounds too. “I think it’s good, I mean, to put an upgrade on the car and see it score points in the first race, of course, it’s encouraging,” said Magnussen. “We know on paper it’s not night and day, but it’s in the details, right? So it’s also a testimony to the car overall that we have.
“We’ve put a little bit more performance on here, but without it, Nico would still have scored points. So very encouraging and looking forward to more races. It is very encouraging, RB have brought updates that didn’t seem to deliver, Aston Martin and even some of the top teams, so it is good that we are making progress and hopefully we can keep it up,” summed up Magnussen.
Here’s Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen on British GP
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