With Hülkenberg, Haas revises its objectives upwards

The end of the grid background for Haas ? After an encouraging 5^e place among the Manufacturers in 2018, the American team was unable to continue in stride, even recording meager results with various cars regularly placed among the last of the peloton.

With the arrival of Mick Schumacher in 2021, crowned with his title of champion of F2, Haas could perhaps see hope on the horizon. But here again, the Americans offered him a VF-21 deprived of any development, above all a continuation of an already very inefficient VF-20. The pair formed by the German and Nikita mazepin, both rookies, also did not help Gene Haas' team to aim higher.

In 2022, the very good beginnings of Kevin Magnussen with 15 points scored in the first 4 rounds allowed Haas to hope for a good campaign, finally! Ultimately, the structure of Kannapolis had to be resolved. Lacking cash, it was not able to happily develop its VF-22 even if it sometimes managed to be competitive on certain events.

Haas regains ambition

For 2023 and beyond, the story is quite different for Haas. By replacing Mick Schumacher with Nico Hulkenberg, the North American team indeed wants to revise its objectives upwards. If she does not expect to immediately fight for victories or at least podiums, she wants to leave for good the last positions to which she has been accustomed for many seasons.

« The short term future is to get the team back to where we want to be, at least middle of the pack, if not the front in the next couple of years, told team principal Günther Steiner. We want to fight regularly in the middle of the pack because this year we were there in some races, then we disappeared and then we came back… This season has been like a roller coaster."

Aware of the progress made by his men after two very complicated years, Günther Steiner knows that they must continue their momentum to quickly achieve their objectives. “ We need some stability next year, points out the Italian. We took a big step forward this year compared to what we experienced the last two years, but we want to continue to improve. That's the goal, because the other teams obviously want to do the same."

To carry out this new project that Haas is embarking on, Günther Steiner is delighted to be able to count on people “ experienced » starting with Nico Hülkenberg with whom he hopes to be able to regularly taste the Top 10.

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