Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images
Why the Austrian Grand Prix could be a voyage of discovery for Haas
Guenther Steiner and Haas F1 know exactly what their problem is right now.
But finding a solution is the trickier part.
Throughout this 2023 season, Haas has been surprisingly strong on Saturdays, and their qualifying pace has been impressive. The most notable example came in the Canadian Grand Prix, when Nico Hülkenberg — thanks to a bit of luck with weather and a red flag — qualified on the front row. While he would ultimately start fifth after a three-place penalty, it was a strong showing for the team.
Sunday, however, was a different story. Hülkenberg slid back through the field as Haas again struggled with their race pace, and he finished out of the points.
“It’s pretty clear now, obviously the result is not what we should be doing and it’s very disappointing. I think we know where to look, the issue is as soon as we get into traffic and behind cars, our degradation is immense, we cannot get the tire performance back and we just slip back,” said Steiner after the Canadian Grand Prix.
“We can clearly see it, as soon as we get away from free air and start to fight, we just degrade,” added the Haas boss. “We know really what we need to look for, and we’ll be looking for it. We need to put our heads together and try to find a solution to this and not hide behind good qualifying results.”
With Red Bull Ring on the horizon, the team is searching for answers. Which means the Austrian Grand Prix — complete with its “Sprint Saturday” formant — could be a voyage of discovery for the team.
“We’re investigating the very good performance we have in qualifying and not-so-good performance during the race at the moment,” said Steiner in the team’s media preview. “We’re trying to pinpoint it but for the next races we’re maybe going to try and find a sweeter spot between the two sessions, qualifying and the race, so something in the middle. We’re working hard on it and trying to find out what we can do over the next races to make it better.”
However, Steiner believes that the answers will be found, thanks in part to his drivers. The Haas team boss credits both Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen for their feedback, and patience, during this process.
“I must admit, I’m actually very happy with both Kevin and Nico about how they’re an integral part in trying to sort the problem and find the solution, how we tackle the short and long-term fix for this, and they’re both very positive,” added Steiner. “Not about the performance in the race right now but positive that we can get out of the problem we have now.”
For the drivers, both Hülkenberg and Magnussen are looking forward to tackling Red Bull Ring, and its various technical elements. The track is the shortest on the F1 schedule, but poses a number of challenges for the drivers, and the teams.
“There’s a lot of nature and the circuit itself is built into the mountains. There’s great scenery, it’s a scenic route into the track, and it’s very green,” said Hülkenberg. “It’s one of the shortest, if not the shortest track we go to with just over one minute per lap, but it’s a technical and challenging track so it doesn’t mean it’s an easy circuit.”
Still, given the questions that Haas needs to answer, fans and supporters might want to pack their patience as they head to Red Bull Ring this weekend.
“We’re going into this race partly a little bit like a test session as well. We have a lot of things to try and cure our problems with the race pace, so we have a few ideas,” admitted Steiner.
“As we have two races now this weekend, we’ve got double the amount of time to try to do different things,” added the team boss. “Obviously, we always try to get the best result possible but also maybe we compromise the best result possible for really understanding what is happening with our car on race day.”
