Nico Hülkenberg surprises Günther Steiner despite three years on the sidelines
The boss of the Haas team said he was pleasantly surprised by his driver Nico Hülkenberg, despite having doubts following his absence.
Confined to a substitute role for three years, it did not take long for Nico Hülkenberg to impress his management at Haas. Günther Steiner recently explained that he was surprised by the German’s ability to readjust. He attributes this to experience.
« He surprised me with his speed of execution and integration within the team. It was quite astonishing to see how quickly he understood people. […] But it’s also the way he approaches the race, he does it in the right way and puts in the right amount of effort – he doesn’t try to do too much. He knows exactly what he needs to do. That’s experience. »
Return already successful?
Back for his 10th season in F1 as a regular driver, Hülkenberg was hired to replace the young Mick Schumacher, who had not performed well for two years. Although he had the opportunity to race a few times as a substitute in recent seasons, the Haas Team Principal admitted that he initially feared the 35-year-old driver would need time to get back up to speed. But that is not the case.
« The doubt was how long it would take him to catch up after three years without being a full-time driver, explains Steiner. » It didn’t take him long because he was right there from the first day, which is very good. He made it to Q3 six or seven times in the first 11 races – that’s not bad and he scored nine points, so he’s pretty good in races ».
« It’s the car that’s not good enough, so we need to work on the car – I don’t think we have a driver problem. The team is very satisfied with Nico », the Italo-American manager emphasized.
For now, Hulk is currently ranked 14th in the championship and is the main contributor for his team, which is 7th in the constructors’ standings.
