Hülkenberg unhappy with Mexico: “I hope it’s a wake-up call”
In the midfield during the Mexican Grand Prix, Nico Hülkenberg fought hard with his Haas and its significant tire degradation, hoping to bring points to the American team. However, his car did not offer him anything better than a frustrating 13th place.
Last in the constructor standings with 12 points, the Haas team is plowing ahead with little success in fully recovering. This weekend in Mexico, despite the failure on Kevin Magnussen’s car which led to his accident, Nico Hülkenberg had a bit more pace than in previous weekends, but only enough to secure a meager 13th place, far from the points that Haas would need at this stage of the season. Tired of the situation, the German driver didn’t mince his words towards his team at the end of the Mexican weekend.
Hülkenberg frustrated
After the arrival of the Mexican Grand Prix, Hülkenberg immediately pointed fingers at Haas and their lack of commitment. “It’s inevitable. We pay the price for not bringing upgrades, for not finding performance,” he said. Indeed, Haas makes few modifications due to budget constraints and fails to optimize the car’s settings to make it as competitive as possible. This situation is starting to frustrate the German.
Nico Hülkenberg doesn’t stop there and warns the team and employees without holding back. I hope this is an alarm signal for all factory employees. At this rate, you can’t compete in F1. Strong words but fitting for Haas’ lack of performance. Without improvement, Hülkenberg and Magnussen could quickly grow tired.
Is it the fault of the bad car philosophy?
Nico Hülkenberg questioned the impact of the new parts upon arrival, wondering if the old Haas would have been more competitive on the Mexico City circuit. In fact, it handled the low-speed areas quite well. The old specification had good characteristics and was more or less competitive at low speeds, and this track is obviously dominated by low speed. “I don’t know, I have the feeling that the old configuration might have been better here,” explained the German.
To further fuel Hülkenberg’s frustration, Haas has chosen a direction and it must be followed. However, the German driver mentions the difficulty of getting everything in order since Austin, with two complicated race weekends for various reasons: « There are still ups and downs because Austin was a sprint weekend with little testing, and Mexico is at such a high altitude… »
One thing is certain: Haas has three Grand Prix left to get back on track, the one for scoring points. The gap in the standings is tight, as Haas is only two points behind 8th place.
