Guenther Steiner talks about being surprised by Nico Hulkenberg’s pace after being away from F1, as he adds on Haas’ progress.
After years away from F1, Hulkenberg has had a decent return with Haas alongside Magnussen. Even though they haven’t got stack of points to show but in general, the German has shown good pace especially in qualifying.
The race pace is down for Haas which is why they bog down on Sundays, but the pace has surprised Steiner and how he has managed to run at par or even better than Magnussen. In fact, the Dane uses the German’s set-up in races to eke out good results.
“I think he puts an effort in and for him it’s good to have a benchmark,” said Steiner. “That’s what I think. Nico is doing a good job. I am quite surprised when he came in, how quick he was, at the speed he is at, at the moment, because a lot of people said after three years, as not a full time driver, it will take half a year to get back into it.
“I think it didn’t take him half a year – and if it did, what can we expect in the second half of the season? I think it’s a good thing for Kevin. He has a benchmark, and he needs to get there, and he’s loving it. If Nico’s in front of him, he’s not getting angry or anything, he tries to beat him, and that is what we want. We want to have a healthy competition within the team,” summed up Steiner.
Looking at the F1 2023 season, the Italian reckons Haas is amid a tight battle behind Red Bull. Even though the likes of Aston Martin, Mercedes and Ferrari are a step ahead, he feels that the American outfit can shine on their day considering the closeness especially against the outfits just behind this pack.
“We found out that our car is performing but, team five to team 10, it’s so close together, and you never know at each circuit who is going to be best. Some cars are better for fast circuits, some for slower circuits and every time we need to find out when we get there, not how good our car is; we need to find out how good the other five teams we are competing with are,” said Steiner.
“So, I mean, you can leave Red Bull alone, they are doing their own race, that’s what everybody says, but somebody will catch them, but the six teams, I say now at the end, because we are from five to 10, are very close together and always it’s like: ‘hey, we go to every race track and see what the other ones are doing. We know where we are, roughly, but that doesn’t mean we know where we end up in the pecking order, because the other ones can do a better job than us.”
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