Nico Hülkenberg put together a steady race at the Mexico City Grand Prix to come home in the points for the third straight race, finishing ninth, although he lacked the of teammate Kevin Magnussen all weekend as he admitted on Saturday and Sunday to have an ideal feeling in the VF-24.
It was a slight dip from his eighth-place starting position, but this was on account of being passed on lap 56 by the much faster McLaren of Oscar Piastri.
“There was no way [I could have hung on], I think in the end he was a good 15 seconds ahead of me.”
Nevertheless, he termed the race “generally very positive, especially with Kevin [Magnussen] in P7 to hold off that McLaren.
“For me, happy with P9 actually, considering the feeling I had in the car, which was pretty poor, to be honest, all weekend. It’s been a struggle and I didn’t manage to get on top of things. I didn’t really feel the car beneath me.
“Unfortunately, sometimes you have those weekends and you still need to make the most of it. I feel I’ve done it.
“On one hand, happy and pleased about that. On the other hand, obviously a bit disappointed I couldn’t do more like Kevin.”
The double-points finish for Hülkenberg and Magnussen makes it five straight races in the points for Haas as the car updates are working brilliantly to show the squad is fast on all types of circuits, with the German quick to praise the team.
“I think the great work from everyone recently [is paying] off.
“The updates since the beginning of the year in Silverstone and Austin are really bearing their fruits, and we can capitalise with those.
“I think we’ve scored points in the last couple of events now on very different circuits.
“Obviously, that’s a testament to the good work and to our consistency right now”—a consistency that will hopefully for them carry over into this upcoming race at São Paulo.
This team effort has moved Haas up to sixth in the Constructors’ Championship over the last two rounds, 10 points ahead of RB, but Hülkenberg is well aware that the battle is yet to be won.
“I don’t want to talk too early. It’s still four weekends to go, two Sprints.
“Many things can happen, and you know RB, they’re not going to hand it to us I don’t want to jump the gun here, so let’s see at the end of the season.”
As for his expectations for the next race, Hülkenberg simply said “the car should be fine.”
