Steiner: 'Hulkenberg didn't pressure engineers, he motivated'

At Haas F1, they suffer from too much tyre degradation and brake temperatures soon rise too quickly. In qualifying, the team, led by Nico Hulkenberg, can sometimes surprise with a Q3, but a day later the VF23 sinks through the field very quickly. As a result, the team has no chance of points at the moment.

Hulkenberg recently indicated Haas F1's engineers could take an example from McLaren. In a few months, the Woking-based formation made a step from perhaps the worst team to a team that can compete for podium places. Speaking to GPblog and others, Steiner confronts Hulkenberg about that statement. Because is it taking so long for that desired change to come?

"Yeah, I just told them, and now they're looking and will be like McLaren next week," Steiner laughed. "I think what he meant is, we spoke about it because that is in a positive way. If you take the positives out, obviously we are not doing what McLaren is doing, and a lot of other teams are also trying to make upgrades and are still where they are. McLaren makes them and did a very good job, you have to compliment people like this, but it shows you that you need to do good work and be a little bit lucky, it can be done."

The team boss further stated: "It's not a thing that you say, I give up now, and you can never get there. It has been done, and if something has been done, you can try to do that. I think we spoke about it at the meetings, where Nico was also present, it is possible, and that's what he meant. We shouldn't say it's not possible, because then we stay where we are. It is possible, and there is proof that it's possible."

No pressure, but extra motivation

So Hulkenberg's story can be interpreted in several ways, but Steiner is sure it was not meant to put pressure on the engineers. "I don't think it's pressure, I think it's motivation. I think you misunderstood that. I think it's not like putting pressure, saying you need to do this, that's too easy, you can say that. I think it's motivational for people to show them that somebody did that, which means you can do it as well."

At Haas F1, all noses are still in the same direction. "I think everybody is aligned, knowing that there can be light at the end of the tunnel, it's a good thing. This is not pressure, this is the opposite of pressure, this is saying, guys, you can do this as well," Steiner concludes.