At the summer break, Haas were still tied for seventh on points with Williams, but his team can kiss that position goodbye, fears Nico Hülkenberg
Nico Hülkenberg believes Williams are “gone” in the Formula One Constructors’ Championship unless his Haas team pulls off a “miracle” to turn the tide. Haas has yet to get to grips with the tyre problems on its 2023 car. The team is unable to maintain its often good qualifying pace over an entire race stint.
The team is struggling especially on hot and twisty tracks where the Pirelli tyres are tested the most, and the disastrous performance at the Italian Grand Prix was another low point.
Hülkenberg and teammate Kevin Magnussen were the only drivers to be lapped, finishing 17th and 18th respectively.
Haas tested solutions to the tyre overheating problem but was obviously not yet able to find a solution. In the Constructors’ Championship, the team has now received the receipt for this.
Before the start of the second half of the season, they shared seventh place with Williams, but since then Alexander Albon has almost doubled the points haul of their resurgent rivals, while Haas have not scored a point since Austria.
Williams is gone
Haas are now ten points behind Williams, while Alfa Romeo have moved to within one point, but Hülkenberg admits Haas won’t be able to keep up with Williams.
“To be honest, Williams look like they’re gone,” he says. “They and McLaren have obviously made a lot of progress this year. And I don’t see how we can turn the tide unless we find a miracle.”
“With the low-downforce package, there’s only one direction to go when the tyre reaches its lifespan, and that’s backwards,” he frets. “We’re eating up the tyre, the balance is bad, we’re sliding a lot more than other cars. We can’t maintain the speed and we use up more tyres. It was one of the most difficult and worst races of the season. “
Even without sun difficulties in Singapore?
While Magnussen generally struggles with the handling characteristics of the VF-23, Hülkenberg’s twelfth place at Zandvoort showed some signs of improvement with the high-downforce package. And although the sun won’t be a factor in the Singapore night race, Haas could still struggle with the high temperatures.
“The high track temperatures and the sun are certainly not good for us,” he says, hoping that the better pace at Zandvoort is representative of the races to come. “The pace at Zandvoort looked more promising and the characteristics and the feeling for the car were much better than this weekend.”
“For the next races I am cautiously optimistic, I think we should be better placed. At least a better place in the midfield, and closer to having a race. “
