Nico Hulkenberg had shown impressive pace during the practice sessions for the 2023 Miami GP, but in the end he was knocked out in Q2 and saw his team-mate Kevin Magnussen grab all the attention with a superb effort to qualify his Haas in fourth place. The German said traffic issues on the out lap cost him a shot at the top 10 shootout.
Photo Credit: MoneyGram Haas F1 Team
Nico Hulkenberg has had somewhat of a mixed bag of a weekend at Miami so far, with the German setting impressive pace across all three practice sessions, but a crash in practice one and a Q2 elimination somewhat undermine his efforts for a good starting position for Sunday’s grand prix. The German missed Q3 by just over 0.150s and will line up 12th for the race.
Speaking to media after the qualifying session, Hulkenberg explained that traffic issues on his out lap ahead of the final flying lap meant he picked up dust and lost grip on his tyres, meaning he had to abort his lap on new tyres, having to rely on his used tyre run to make it through, but it wasn’t enough.
“Much more, there was much more in the car,” he said when asked if the car was capable of more. “[I am] really, really frustrated and upset, my time in Q2 was on the used set from the first lap.
“We need to review what happened on the out lap and how we got into that messy situation with Fernando [Alonso] and Esteban [Ocon], but I ended up losing out big time with them – I kind of had to stop the car on the final corner to get a gap to them.”
The 35-year-old explained he was trying to create a gap between himself and Max Verstappen when he was suddenly overtaken by two cars, meaning he had to go off-line and lost even more grip and temperature on his tyres. He said his appearance in the final part of qualifying was meant to be “very straightforward”:
“I had Max [Verstappen] in front, I was making a gap to Max, and then Fernando and Esteban came with so much overspeed from the back. These mirrors are bigger [than last year], but you still see the cars so late, and they have a closing speed of 100kph, there’s not so much you can do anymore.
“You can’t block them, like in a race there would be a massive shunt. Very upset, very frustrating.
“As soon as go you slow here, there’s something with this tarmac, that when you go slow, the tire picks up a lot of s*** and dust, and then opening the lap I just felt myself with not having the grip that I needed – I was one second down in the first sector and aborted the lap.
“There was much more in it, Q3 should’ve been very straightforward, [so] that’s very frustrating.”
Haas brought an updated floor to this weekend’s race, which aimed to bring some performance to the VF-23. Hulkenberg said the car felt “happy” around the Miami circuit since its first laps, but is wary that the team needs to go to other circuits before confirming that the pace is not circuit specific, and the gains are indeed coming from the updates:
“The aero guys seem to be happy,” he said about Haas’s new updated floor. “The car performance, from lap one [in FP1] the car felt pretty happy and handy around [here], so yeah, not bad.
“I think we expect a one stop, [tyre] deg seems to be within reason. Obviously still to be confirmed, because the long runs weren’t that long with the one hour sessions, so lets see how the new tarmac goes and how it behaves tomorrow.
“It’s always a combination of things, it’s either [circuit specific] or the floor making a big difference. We’ll find out once we get to other tracks.”
When asked of Magnussen’s efforts to get the Haas P4 on the grid, Hulkenberg said his team-mate has done a “good job” throughout the weekend:
“He’s done a good job all weekend, he’s been also confident, and converted it, so fair play to him, good job.”
