With a heated battle taking place for sixth place in the constructors’ championship, Haas needed both Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen to maximise their potential at the F1 Qatar GP. However, it was a weekend of mixed fortunes, and the American team now sits five points behind Alpine going into the final race of the season.
While Hülkenberg managed to score two points for Haas in the F1 Qatar GP Sprint, his fortunes took a turn for the worse on Sunday. After qualifying down in P18 due to a technical issue, he started the race on hard compound tyres.
The German driver experienced a lock-up and collided with Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon at the first corner of the F1 Qatar GP. Although he managed to continue after sustaining a puncture, he spun on the safety car restart on lap 40 and beached his car in the gravel.
Despite failing to take advantage of the safety car, Hülkenberg’s teammate Magnussen left the F1 Qatar GP on a more positive note for Haas. Starting from P10, he took the chequered flag in ninth position and bagged two crucial points for the team.
Speaking afterwards, both Haas drivers commented on how their race unfolded under the lights at the F1 Qatar GP. Moreover, they shared their thoughts on the battle for P6 with Alpine and what they expect heading into the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Hülkenberg overcompensating on Sunday for poor qualifying at F1 Qatar GP?
As revealed by Hülkenberg on Saturday, an energy deployment issue compromised his push lap in the first segment of qualifying.
In terms of whether he took more risks than necessary after the P18 start, the 37-year-old conceded that his disappointing qualifying result left him on the back foot. At the same time, he also shouldered the blame for the mistakes that ended his race prematurely on Sunday.
“Yeah, probably. Yeah, maybe. It just didn’t obviously work out. Not a clean race.
“Not a clean quali yesterday which is obviously the root cause. But then today also [was] not a clean good race.
“We made mistakes. I made mistakes. And that’s how quickly you get the payback.”
Satisfied with progress of Haas in 2024
Haas finished bottom of the pile in 2023 with only twelve points to their name. When asked whether a considerably better ending this year provided a sense of relief, Hülkenberg quipped that it was a low bar to clear.
Attributing their performance gains to the better start they had and substantial in-season development, the German also identified Alpine as the team with the best development trajectory in the latter half of the season.
“Yeah. That wasn’t very difficult though to be honest because last year was very, very poor. The standard, the bar was quite low.
“But of course we started the season way better and we really continued to improve the car. But now towards the end of the season you see the mid-pack is so tight and Alpine kind of crept up back to us.
“And they were really far behind. So they probably have the highest development rate of anyone in the second half of the season.
“That’s how we look quick now in the race, watching from the outside. So yeah, it’s highly competitive.”
Finishing P6 in WCC would be “very difficult”
Hülkenberg admitted that overcoming the deficit of five points to Alpine and finishing sixth in the constructors’ championship would be a challenging task. Nonetheless, he revealed that he intends to reset after a difficult Qatar GP and focus on having a clean weekend in Abu Dhabi.
“Very difficult. But I think right now we just need to reset. We just need to try and execute a clean weekend.
“Obviously the two meaningful sessions were not great this weekend. The first half of the weekend was good, the second half was the complete opposite.
“I go to Abu Dhabi just with that in mind. Execute cleanly and maximise the potential and then we’ll see where we end up.”
Overlooking the broken mirror and yellow flags at F1 Qatar GP
Although the stranded mirror wreaked havoc on the track, Hülkenberg remarked that it didn’t catch his sight. In a surprising confession, he also stated that he didn’t notice the yellow flags, thereby implying that he had failed to slow down.
“I didn’t even see a mirror. But I think there was no yellow flag.”
With regard to the 10-second stop-go penalty that is awarded for disobeying the yellow flags, Hülkenberg responded, “I didn’t know.”
Confirming that his race engineer alerted him about the mirror, the German driver added that he failed to spot any debris after Valtteri Bottas’s C44 scattered the pieces across the track.
“They said that there was a mirror somewhere on the straight on the right side but I honestly didn’t see it.
“But the Sauber ran over it. So he [Valtteri Bottas] cleared it out of the way maybe before I got there. I don’t know.
“Maybe there was a problem; I raced with my eyes closed today.”
Punctures at Lusail caused by debris or failing tyres?
The topic of the punctures sustained by Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton became a contentious one as concerns were raised over the durability of the Pirellis.
In terms of whether the tyres were close to failing even without the debris, Hülkenberg opined that their tyres were in reasonably good condition. Nonetheless, he suggested that the increased downforce on the Ferrari and the Mercedes cars might’ve caused the tyres to degrade more.
“I can only speak for our car and I didn’t feel like they were close to failing. But these things they don’t really tell you upfront, they just happen very quickly and instantly.
“But it was cars with a lot more downforce than us. They usually stress the tyre more and I guess that’s one of the downsides of having more downforce.”
Hard tyres responsible for turn 1 incident
The stewards didn’t penalise Hülkenberg for colliding with Colapinto and Ocon on lap 1. When asked whether the verdict surprised him, the Haas driver responded that he needed to look at the footage to understand what transpired.
Additionally, the one-time pole-sitter surmised that bolting on the hard tyres for the first time in the race had resulted in him losing the rear of the car at the first corner.
“I don’t know, to be honest — I need to look at what happened.
“I know that I lost the rear a little bit and I think I touched someone but I think I got touched as well — I don’t know, I need to replay or look at it and get a better picture of it.
“The hard tyre was trickier. You saw some people at the restart. It was pretty snappy and it was the first time obviously on the hards this weekend.
“So yeah, probably that’s a factor in the whole thing.”
Unfortunate safety car timing compromised Magnussen’s race at F1 Qatar GP
Despite a hard-fought P9 finish, Magnussen asserted that a better result was on the cards if he had benefited from pitting under the safety car.
He pitted several laps before the race director neutralised the field, which favoured cars around him and saw him lose track position. The 32-year-old had been ahead of Gasly before it.
“Just super gutted with the safety car, of course. [The timing] completely ruined the day.
“We had a good beginning to the race and everything was going well. Just wish that safety car hadn’t come out. That really screwed us.”
Haas cautiously optimistic about challenging Alpine in Abu Dhabi
Magnussen addressed their chances of finishing ahead of Alpine in the championship standings and mirrored his teammate’s sentiments. Emphasising their recent misfortunes, he commented that they intend to focus on their own performance.
Nevertheless, the Dane also offered assurances that they are keen to rise to the challenge and beat the French outfit to secure sixth place in the WCC.
“Anyway, there’s still a race to go and we’ll go in there guns blazing. I think we are going well.
“We deserve better but luck unfortunately hasn’t been on our side recently. We’ve just got to do what we can.
“As I said, still a round to go. Five points’ deficit is not the easiest of tasks, but still all to play for.”
