Nico Hulkenberg says in little time in December, the aero guys found good performance, while he praises team work with Kevin Magnussen.
Haas has been cautious about his performance ahead of the start of the 2024 F1 season. They kept its expectations low while claiming itself to be at the back of the field while working extensively on improving its race pace and tyre degradation.
So far in three races, they have scored points in two which includes a double in Australia – with a bit of luck. In all of the three races, they haven’t looked like to be suffering as much, as they did in 2023 with the drivers too not complaining hugely.
Despite the decent run, not just Hulkenberg but Magnussen and even Ayao Komatsu are keeping expectations low still. The German agrees that they are doing better than expectation and puts it down to the little period in December which has helped.
“In a way I guess you could say that [we are performing beyond expectations],” said Hulkenberg to media. “I think we’ve made very good progress in a very little amount of time actually in December where the aero guys, found a lot of performance and somehow straightened out the aero map problems we had last year.
“That just means much more consistency on Sunday and therefore better tyre life and characteristics. So yeah, it’s quite nice,” summed up Hulkenberg, who also praised the team work with Magnussen, while joking about working as a nice couple. The Dane directly aided the German in Jeddah, while it was indirect in Australia.
“I mean definitely we are working as a team, as a couple,” said Hulkenberg. “I think we also want very similar things from the car you know pulling in one direction which is always very good for a team, so they can really go in one way, and… yeah on an off track, we get on and it’s good.”
Here’s Haas pair on not wanting to draw early conclusions
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