Haas has nothing to lose: 'We gave Hulkenberg the old car back'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
It is race week and Haas F1 are gearing up for their third home race of the year. Looking ahead to the Las Vegas GP weekend, the US team from Kannapolis, North Carolina, explained that drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg will use a different Haas car specification.
Single upgrade package Haas disappoints driver
Haas are not having a strong season in 2023 and seem to be struggling to be competitive. The team planned only one major upgrade package for the entire season. That package was introduced in Austin but did not turn out to everyone's liking. Although Haas stated that the package was not a step backwards, driver Hulkenberg still feels better in the old specification.
Remarkably, the German gets his way and gets to drive the first version of the car during Las Vegas. Teammate Magnussen opts for the second version. Steiner explained. "The main drive behind this was Nico feels that for him the old spec suits him better, and Kevin is the opposite. We’ve opted to give them what they want, we have two races to go and nothing to lose, so we’ve tried to do what we can."
Nothing to lose at Haas F1
"We could discuss gathering data, but we’ve got enough data, it’s a decision based on what each driver likes more than anything else. It puts them in a comfortable position so that they’re as happy as they can be with the car they get.”