Tag: haas

British Grand Prix qualifying: A ‘sketchy’ decision pays off for Nico Hülkenberg and Haas british,grand,prix,qualifying,a,sketchy,decision,pays,off,for,nico,h,lkenberg,and,haas,sbnation,com,front-page

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As the minutes ticked down in the first qualifying segment at the British Grand Prix, 19 of the 20 drivers wound their way around historic Silverstone circuit in wet conditions, relying on the green intermediate tires.

Nico Hülkenberg was that 20th driver, who remained in the garage waiting for the track to dry out, and the right moment to join the fight.

Hülkenberg had to wait through a red flag, brought out by Sergio Pérez. The Red Bull driver was one of the first to switch to the slicks, with just over seven minutes remaining in the session, but quickly paid a steep price. Pérez slid into the gravel and could not get moving again, ending his session early.

Ultimately, Hülkenberg had just one shot at a flying lap and he made it stick, doing just enough to get into Q2.

But when the dust settled and the checkered flag flew at the end of Q3 Hülkenberg was up in sixth on the timing sheets, and he will start on the third row in Sunday’s British Grand Prix.

That stands as not just the best qualifying result for Hülkenberg this season, but for the team as well.

However, the approach taken by Haas made for some nervy moments for both the driver and the team.

“I managed to take the momentum from last race into this week, plus I think the updates we brought to the car yesterday really had an impact and I felt a gain with them straightaway,” said Hülkenberg in the team’s post-qualifying report. “That’s good news and it’s not always the case, so a big well done to the team. Quali was good; Q1 was a bit too close for comfort with only one lap.

“With the red flag, we got a little out of sync and maybe it was a bit sketchy, but otherwise it was a good, clean session. I feel good confidence in the car which means I can produce the laps, even if it’s just one.”

Team Principal Ayao Komatsu hailed an “amazing” result for the team, but outlined how Haas needs to review their “tricky” approach.

“It’s been a pretty eventful day with pretty tricky conditions, but in FP3 I think we made progress learning about car behavior on the intermediates. In Q1 we decided not to run on the inters because we expected it to be dry, so that’s what we did,” described Komatsu. “It was very tricky, we need to review what we did and how we can do it better because we just got through with Nico. Kevin didn’t get through Q1 because he went off but with Nico, we didn’t give ourselves enough margin, so that’s something we need to improve.”

Komatsu outlined how it could have been even better for Hülkenberg.

“Moving into dry conditions with Nico, what a fantastic result with P6, and that could’ve been better. He made a mistake on his flying lap in one of the corners so it’s really pleasing with all the hard work from the team getting this upgrade on and it paying off well,” added the Haas boss. “It’s an excellent position to start tomorrow, so we’ll see what we can do, but for now, I’m happy for the team – amazing work from everyone.”

While Kevin Magnussen failed to advance out of Q1 and will start at the back of the field, Hülkenberg’s starting position gives Haas a tremendous chance to bring home solid points on Sunday. The team enters the British Grand Prix sitting seventh in the Formula 1 Constructors’ standings, 11 points behind Visa Cash App RB F1 Team.

But with both Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda starting outside the points — and behind Hülkenberg — Haas is in position to cut into that lead Sunday.

Despite a “sketcky” Saturday.

British Grand Prix: Praise rolls in for Oliver Bearman after news of Haas promotion british,grand,prix,praise,rolls,in,for,oliver,bearman,after,news,of,haas,promotion,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one

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Thursday’s media day at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix kicked off with some news regarding a young British driver. Haas announced in the morning that Oliver Bearman, the Ferrari Academy driver who is currently splitting reserve duties between Haas and Ferrari, would be taking one of the team’s two seats on the F1 grid next year.

Bearman’s promotion was a topic of discussion during Thursday’s FIA Press Conference, with three of his countrymen joining the praise for the young driver. Among those included both Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton, who Bearman fended off in the closing stages of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix to finish seventh in his stunning debut in replace of an ailing Carlos Sainz Jr.

“Yeah, [he] did a phenomenal job earlier on this year. Yeah, bright young talent, and I think it’s great that the UK is pumping out a lot of great young talented drivers,” said Hamilton. “I would say Silverstone and the [British Racing Driving Club] have been a part of that, I would say, because they do invest in young and up-and-coming, a lot of the sport’s young and up-and-coming drivers. I think, yeah, I think it’s amazing for the sport. Takes the pressure off of all of us. At least hopefully one of the Brits would be up there.”

“I think he deserves it,” said Norris. “I think he showed in Saudi how good of a job he can do, even under the pressure that he was in to perform and get so much out of the car in his first weekend. So I’m excited to see him on the grid next year and look forward to racing.”

George Russell, the winner of the Austrian Grand Prix, joined in on the praise for the young British driver.

Y”eah, clearly Ollie’s a great driver and it’s great to see four Brits on the grid and I think it just goes to show the strength of British motorsport. I think when we raced in Karting, the competition was so high and I think that translates into next year, 20% of the grid being Brits. Obviously, Alex [Albon], half British as well, so it’s great to see him there and I’m sure he’ll do a great job.”

Bearman is scheduled to take part in FP1 this week as part of his reserve duties for Haas, before taking over next year on a full-time basis. He currently sits 14th in the F2 Drivers’ Championship standings and secured his first win of the season in the F2 Sprint Race at the Austrian Grand Prix.

And if he needs some advice, he has a seven-time F1 champion winner he can turn to.

“No, no, I’ve not been asked to and it’s not even been a thought,” said Hamilton if he was asked to take Bearman under his wing. “I don’t think he needs to. I think he’s a sharp enough lad. And I think, I mean, naturally, as one of the older drivers here, my door’s always open if anyone ever has a question or any advice that’s needed.”

Austrian Grand Prix: Haas hoping to return to the points at Red Bull Ring austrian,grand,prix,haas,hoping,to,return,to,the,points,at,red,bull,ring,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

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Haas last added to their account in the F1 Sprint Race at the Miami Grand Prix, when Nico Hülkenberg parlayed a tenth-place finish in qualifying for the F1 Sprint Race into a seventh-place result in the F1 Sprint Race itself, earning two critical points for the team.

With Formula 1 returning to the F1 Sprint format this weekend at the Austrian Grand Prix, can Haas return to the points?

It has been a difficult stretch for the team since Miami, with their best chance for points coming in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola. That weekend saw Hülkenberg qualify tenth, but he finished in P11, one spot out of the points. Since then they have been left on the outside looking in, including a double DNF in Monaco due to an opening-lap collision involving Sergio Pérez.

Their recent struggles opened the door for Alpine, whose own success the past few weeks — with six points over two race weekends — has seen the French outfit climb above them in the Constructors’ Championship standings. Alpine now sits seventh in the table with eight points, one point — and place — ahead of Haas with seven points.

As Haas heads to Red Bull Ring along with the rest of the grid for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, they are hopeful that recent success at that circuit will aid their quest for points.

“It’s a short track that packs in a lot of fun,” said Hülkenberg in the team’s media preview. “The length of the circuit means it bunches us all up over qualifying, which is a challenge, but we have two opportunities as it’s a Sprint. Last year I scored points around the Red Bull Ring, so I know it can be done, and we want to be back scoring points, so that’s the mission in Spielberg.”

On the other side of the garage Kevin Magnussen — who is hoping to have his F1 future resolved “soon” — is wary that the many high-speed corners in Austria could pose a problem for the team’s VF-24.

“It’s a fun track; I’ve got some good memories from the Red Bull Ring, that’s where we’ve had our best team result so I’m looking forward to going there again,” described Magnussen. “We have quite an efficient car so hopefully with our good straight-line speed we can be good there. There’s still a fair number of high-speed corners, which is perhaps not our strength, but we seem to be pretty consistently good at most tracks. I’m just looking forward to a fun Sprint weekend.”

Haas Race Engineer Mark Slade walked through the variety of corners Red Bull Ring offers, and how each may, or may not, suit the team’s challenger.

“One of the main things about the Red Bull Ring is that it’s a very short lap so it gets busy, particularly in practice and qualifying. It’s a nice mixture of low-, medium-, and high-speed corners, and obviously in a spectacular setting so it looks amazing, and it does provide quite a significant challenge for us when setting the car up,” described Slade. “We’ve had some issues with medium-speed corners, so we’re expecting to have to manage that, it’s going to be a challenge for us, but on the other hand in low-speed corners, we’ve generally been very good at them and we think we’ve taken a step forward in high-speed corners recently. We’ll see how we get on, but we’ve got a plan of course.”

While many teams have addressed the challenges a compressed F1 Sprint week puts in front of them, Slade outlined how for a team like Haas, there are added benefits to the condensed schedule.

“There is a lot of extra work for a Sprint, especially in amongst a triple-header, but it also makes it very interesting, it’s all a part of Formula 1,” said Slade. “You have to be realistic that you’re not going to be able to do everything you’d like to do with one practice session, so you have to pick the most important points that you think are relevant to getting the best out of the car in both the Sprint and the race and work to achieve those objectives – it’s a very compressed, highly edited run plan.

“The format of a Sprint is different from previous years, so you can afford to be a little bit more experimental in the Sprint race because points only go to eighth place, and realistically we’re chasing that last points-paying position so it means we can try things that we wouldn’t necessarily have tried, knowing we can change things for the race.”

Slade and the rest of the team get their first crack at Red Bull Ring this Friday.

Spanish Grand Prix: Haas ‘feeling it’ as F1 tripleheader begins spanish,grand,prix,haas,feeling,it,as,f,tripleheader,begins,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one,2024-formula-one

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This weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix markes the first of three-straight races on the Formula 1 calendar, a fact that poses challenges for all ten teams.

Including Haas.

In the team’s media preview of the Spanish Grand Prix, Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu noted that the sport has reached that part of the schedule where everyone is “feeling it,” a fact that makes the upcoming tripleheader even tougher for the teams.

“A triple-header is always pretty tough, thankfully a lot of our team is UK-based so it helps that the last race of this triple is in the UK, but it is still very hard,” described Komatsu. “It’s getting to that point of the season where everybody’s feeling it, so it’s very important that we look after ourselves to be able to perform at our best, to be efficient and focused, especially on the back of two events where our trackside operations weren’t the best. We can’t let that happen, so we need to look at ourselves and see how we can operate at our best.”

This weekend also marks the return of reserve driver Oliver Bearman to the VF-24, as the reserve driver and Ferrari supersub participated in FP1 ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, driving Kevin Magnussen’s car. This weekend Bearman will again participate in FP1, this time replacing Nico Hülkenberg.

The practice session comes amid consistent rumors that Bearman will be tapped for a full-time seat with the team next season.

Komatsu is hopeful that the team’s recent upgrades will mesh well with the many high-speed corners Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has to offer.

“Spain is the first circuit since we introduced our upgrades which has proper high-speed corners, so I’m really looking forward to assessing our update at that circuit and see what it’s like,” added Komatsu. “We have Bearman joining us again for FP1, this time in place of Nico, so he can continue from where he left off in Imola.”

Like his boss, Hülkenberg is also lookign forward to the high-speed corners the Spanish Grand Prix has to offer.

“It’s one of the classic circuits we’ve been going to over the years. It’s obviously a very high-speed circuit and I think it’s going to be very hot there this year, it used to be the first race of the European season,” added Hülkenberg. “I expect there’s going to be very hot, Spanish, temperatures. The vibes in Barcelona and the Spanish lifestyle are pretty cool and go well with a fun race. I like triple-headers, we’ve known them now for a few years and June is that month when things get quite busy.”

While Hülkenberg has already announced his 2025 plans, as the German driver will head to Sauber for next season ahead of the organization becoming the Audi works team in 2026, Magnussen is one of the drivers currently on the grid facing an uncertain future. But the Danish driver is simply looking forward to the high-speed circuit, and the racing that it offers.

“It’s one of the most well-known tracks for all the drivers, probably the track I’ve done most laps of out of them all. It’s a good track, lots of high-speed corners there, and can be quite difficult to overtake,” described Magnussen. “It’s become better, the track is more enjoyable after they’ve removed the last chicane and that’s also helped overtaking a little bit, so hopefully we can be competitive there. It’s a triple-header, but it’s nice to be in the European part of the season, it’s all familiar surroundings, short flights and no jet lag.”