The Haas team brought a refreshed car to Austin, raising some hopes, but a short sprint showed that the distance speed issues could not be resolved, at least for the time being. Team drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen finished fifteenth and eighteenth respectively.
Nico Hulkenberg (15th): “Actually, for the first time we were able to evaluate the car in real conditions, because I had to work on a lot of things in practice, and then there were two short qualifying sessions, in which I drove two attempts or less each time.
It is good that we were able to complete the sprint distance and collect information about the car over a long series. Now the situation doesn’t look optimal, but we have to analyze everything to unlock the car’s full potential. That is difficult in a sprint weekend.”
Kevin Magnussen (18th): “Not the best sprint, because the pace dropped considerably over the distance. We will study everything to find out the reason. We can’t change anything on the cars before the race, but we’ll see what we can do.
I started with confidence and rode a good first lap. Then I did a few more laps and the usual story started as the tire performance started to drop and everyone was overtaking me.”
Gunther Steiner, team leader: “The sprint did not go according to plan. There is still work to be done, but from the first impressions we are not happy, so we will see what we can do in the race.
We found out that we were wrong on some points, but after one practice, two qualifying sessions and one short race it is difficult to draw conclusions. But at the moment we have to continue working, because the new products did not work as we expected.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
