The progress that Haas is showing, race after race, mirrors Ferrari’s progress. For both teams, the Texas weekend was nothing short of sensational, perhaps even exceeding expectations. It allowed Ferrari to secure an uncontested one-two finish and the American team to complete the much-anticipated overtake in the Constructors’ Championship over Racing Bulls. Komatsu’s team had announced significant updates to the VF24 on Friday. These updates worked perfectly, allowing Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen to consistently fight for points, both in the Sprint Race and the main race.
Haas: Updates approved and satisfied drivers, but with better communication and strategy, a larger haul was possible
Nico Hulkenberg finished P8 in both the Sprint and the United States GP, bringing home a total of five points. The German didn’t show his full potential in the first stint, but in the second half of the race, he found an impressive pace that allowed him to close in on Sergio Perez’s Red Bull: “After the sprint, I was really mad at myself, I turned that anger into positive energy for the next day. I’m very satisfied, we maximized everything we could, and in the end, we were actually closing in on Perez’s Red Bull. I suspected it could be a one-stop race, and indeed it was, although in the middle of the first stint, the pace seemed really poor and horrible. Fortunately, the tires recovered and played in our favor, and extending the first stint opened the door for this race and result. That was the key, so five points this weekend and two points ahead of RB, it was a good weekend.”
Kevin Magnussen, on the other hand, delivered an excellent Sprint Race, finishing in seventh place. However, Sunday was not as positive for the Dane, who was a victim of a two-stop strategy that turned out to be a mistake: “We didn’t score any points today even though we had a good chance of doing so. We were thinking of a one-stop, but we predicted we wouldn’t be able to make it to the end.”
Team Principal Ayao Komatsu was pleased with the result achieved by the German driver but expressed some regret about Magnussen’s race, which was not managed optimally, partly due to errors on the pit wall: “It was nice to get a P8 with Nico. We had agreed in advance that we would try a one-stop race if Nico made it to lap 26 or 27. He executed an excellent one-stop strategy, and considering the situation, he managed the tires very well and communicated well. On Kevin’s side, it was almost the opposite, as our baseline was a two-stop strategy, and then there was messy communication toward the end of the race with the pit wall. Kevin was stuck behind Pierre Gasly, with Yuki Tsunoda just behind him. We pitted him because we feared Yuki Tsunoda would surprise us with an undercut. The radio message came right when Sergio Perez passed the Japanese driver. From that moment on, the risk of an undercut decreased, and I should have stopped the action, but unfortunately, we had communication problems on the pit wall again. Moreover, if the first pit stop came too early (lap 17), the second pit stop came too late, around lap 38. I feel we should have scored points with both cars today, even if Kevin might have struggled to hold onto P10, but at least he would have had a chance. If we had left here with P8 and P10, it would have been the best result, but unfortunately, only Nico scored today,” said the Japanese Haas technician.
The Haas Team Principal still sees the glass as half full. Haas, now the fifth-strongest team on average, is ready to defend its sixth position in the Constructors’ standings from Racing Bulls: “We scored seven points over the weekend and are two points ahead of RB, so that’s the bright side. We are now P6 in the Constructors’ Championship with five rounds to go, and we are competitive, so we will try to maintain this trend. The updates worked, and the new version of the car is better in the weak areas that we had identified as needing improvement in the wind tunnel. It’s no longer like in previous years, where it was just about looking at the 10-point load increase in each corner, it’s much more complex.” – he concluded.
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