Steiner: We can not only defend, but also attack

Haas boss Günter Steiner believes the first three races of the season were the right decision to invite Nico Hülkenberg to replace Mick Schumacher. Niko was ahead of teammate Kevin Magnussen in three qualifying rounds and in Melbourne he earned his first points of the season by finishing seventh.

Günther Steiner: “It was important for us to answer the question of what we should do to further develop the team. Kevin is also part of the team and Niko’s invitation motivated him. Not only competitive motivation, but also help – now he knows that if he manages to find the right settings, he can rely on an experienced partner. And he does.

Kevin had a strong stage in Melbourne, although maybe not as strong as in Jeddah. In the second part of qualifying, he made a mistake in turn six and was unable to progress to the final. However, Kevin knew exactly what went wrong and the car has speed. If it continues like this, both of our drivers will earn points in one of the upcoming races.

It’s nice to know that we can not only defend, but also attack. We can get results not because someone has problems, but because we are fast ourselves. In Melbourne, one of the McLaren drivers was luckier, and he [Оскар Пиастри] finished eighth, but more importantly for us in the first three Grands Prix we reached the qualifying final twice without any problems. Our team needed no luck for this.

Everyone thinks we’re just lucky, but I believe our car is at least the sixth fastest and that’s why we’ve earned points in two of the three races and reached the qualifying final twice.

Nico impressed me with how quickly he adapted to the car and the team, and how he tries to get the most out of every situation. This is not always possible, because there is no longer a middle group – there are four leaders and everyone else. We fight in everyone else’s group and we fight for this group.