Nico Hulkenberg said Haas have been surprised by the progress they have made this season, after finishing sixth in the last two races.
His points haul over the last two rounds has moved Haas past Alpine and within four points of sixth-placed RB in the constructors championship.Hulkenberg’s result in Silverstone came courtesy of a major upgrade package on his car. He said the team’s progress has “been very positive.”
“Austria was very good, then we brought the update to Silverstone which added more performance and was a good step forward,” he said. “I think so far this season, obviously we’re at the halfway point after Silverstone, we’re definitely one of the positive surprises this season.”
He said the team have “recovered a lot of performance from last year,” when they finished at the bottom of the championship standings with 12 points, less than half of what they have today.
“It’s very enjoyable, obviously, racing for points,” said Hulkenberg. “I don’t know how many point-scorings we’ve had now, but also a few times very close to the top 10. Obviously our ambition and target is to try and keep that up for the rest of the season.”
Ayao Komatsu replaced Guenther Steiner as team principal during the off-season and made changes to the technical structure of the team. Hulkenberg said these have paid off more than they expected.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“We surprised ourselves a little bit already in winter testing in Bahrain,” he said. “From the get-go we found ourselves in better shape than what we could expect.
I think it all goes down to some reshuffling of the technical structures we had within our team and the organisation. It’s just been good and very enjoyable and positive.”
He expects the team will be able to sustain its recent form at the Hungaroring this weekend. “We’ve been around the top 10 and competitive within the midfield and in the race for fifth-fastest on many occasions and I don’t see a reason why it should be very different here.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
2024 Hungarian Grand Prix
- Verstappen names Hungarian GP the most stressful moment of his title-winning year
- McLaren team orders “a new situation we’re inexperienced at handling” – Piastri
- Verstappen dismisses critics of “vocal” radio messages and late-night simracing
- Norris’ former McLaren team mates say he was right to give up win
- Mercedes surprised Hamilton’s car was “completely unscathed” in Verstappen clash
MichaelN
19th July 2024, 14:30
It’s been impressive to see. They, rightly, get a lot of stick for the day they run their operation, but it seems they did a great thing in getting rid of Steiner and giving the in-house engineers some more freedom to work.
And drivers can make a huge difference in this tight group Haas finds itself. Bearman and, presumably, Ocon should also be a good step up for them.
notagrumpyfan
19th July 2024, 15:17
Not sure how Bearman (too inexperienced) or Ocon (too …..) can be a ‘good step up’ from Hulkenberg.
An Sionnach
19th July 2024, 21:57
I agree with you about Bearman, but hopefully he improves as he learns. Ocon is consistent and should be an improvement on Hulkenberg in the races, if not qualifying. Not all of the incidents he’s been in have been his, or entirely his fault. He certainly has an edge and it needs to be refined. If he was from a certain different country, even the incidents he is to blame for would be blamed on the other guy! See L Norris and L Hamilton, for example!
Nick T.
19th July 2024, 16:25
Was Gunther the one who supported a big update and no small updates philosophy? I feel like we often take too much from TP changes. Maybe that change has a lot to do with the improvement or very little. They got the big MoneyGram sponsorship last year and it’s possible the investment that allowed is only showing itself this year.
AK is an actual engineer. So, that must help. You can actually understand if ideas, excuses, etc. you’re being told make sense and better understand what needs to be changed and why. Non-engineer TPs have usually showed their value by being good managers of people and having good noses for talent, convincing people to believe in your project and then being hands off and letting them get on with their jobs done (e.g., that’s how Flavio worked) and spearheading the non-performance aspects of the business.
SteveP
19th July 2024, 15:45
So, improvements from work done while Gunter was TP had them only 0.75% in deficit, then the deficit increased, and more recently seems to have pulled back to 0.5% which is presumably the benefit of the technical restructure.
Let’s see, who moved in or out of the technical team?
AlexS
19th July 2024, 18:10
Unclear what people changed besides Simone Resta that departed.
Nick T.
19th July 2024, 16:14
Hulk is right they’ve been very close to the points even when not scoring. I think they have something like 5-10 11th places.
AlexS
19th July 2024, 18:08
They could have been better if for no operational and some driver mistakes. Steiner i am afraid was more of show boat than a precise man like Komatsu.
Edvaldo
19th July 2024, 19:35
That does not paint a good picture of Gunther Steiner.
How many cars they made they simply couldn’t understand and properly update? That black car was the worst. A very fast car they completely failed at taking good results from it.
SteveP
19th July 2024, 21:12
Steiner wasn’t designing them, the technical lead was Komatsu – the one who is now team principal and thus less involved in the technical.
Edvaldo
19th July 2024, 22:51
He didn’t design but he was the one managing the crew including the engineers.
I wouldn’t doubt had he stayed one year longer Gene Haas would pull the plug due to lack of improvement. This team is not a big deal but they could’ve done more with what they had, in particular in 2018 and 2019. Those cars were good.
SteveP
20th July 2024, 17:25
Steiner was the one managing the one who managed the technical team.
It seems the tech team were improved by promoting their manager out of the way.