AUSTIN — On Thursday on the Circuit of the Individuals Nico Hülkenberg met with the assembled media, together with SB Nation, in Haas’ hospitality house. Throughout that dialogue, the German driver famous his optimism for the weekend, given an improve package deal the group dropped at Austin. As Hülkenberg famous, in distinction to the 2023 season, upgrades gave the impression to be working a lot better for the group throughout this marketing campaign.
It appears that evidently optimism was warranted.
Each Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen pushed into SQ3 on Friday in Austin, and the pair will begin inside the highest eight when the lights exit Saturday within the F1 Dash Race at america Grand Prix. Hülkenberg is about to start out sixth, with Magnussen proper behind him on the grid in eighth.
Crew Principal Ayao Komatsu hailed the “wonderful end result” after the session.
“That was an incredible end result,” mentioned Komatsu. “On the medium tires, Kevin was on high of it and doing rather well and Nico was really enjoying catch-up, he wasn’t as pleased with the automobile as Kevin. In direction of the tip of SQ2, Nico had fairly an enormous water leak challenge so it was actually contact and go as to whether we might ship him out in SQ3 however everybody within the storage did an incredible job to get him out; after we left the storage, there was solely a ten second margin.
“On used softs he delivered an important lap once more to get P6, whereas Kevin was barely dissatisfied to be P8 on the brand new tire, however for those who’re dissatisfied with P8, that’s place. I feel the factor is we now have extra potential, so it’s a very good day.”
Hülkenberg nearly appeared shocked on the end result after the session, which he described as “difficult” in his feedback.
“I’ll need to let that sink in for a bit. It was a really difficult qualifying because it was actually up and down. In SQ1 I didn’t really feel superb within the automobile, and I feel we had been fortunate to make it by way of, so I didn’t anticipate that. We acquired fortunate, and in SQ2 it acquired higher, and it acquired higher once more in SQ3 on the comfortable tires. We nonetheless must look into the replace because it at present feels difficult to drive with the wind and every little thing, however we now have much more knowledge to take a look at.”
Magnussen, who is about to get the improve following the F1 Dash Race, was not “too shocked” on the end result given the energy the group has proven up to now this weekend.
“I feel it’s been trying good all day actually, so I’m not too shocked that we’re up there. I’m actually glad that we acquired each automobiles into SQ3, with Nico simply acing it when he must on that final lap,” mentioned Magnussen within the group’s post-session report. “P6 and P8 for tomorrow’s Dash is a good begin to the weekend.
“Nico is operating with the improve so it’s further good to see him up there as a result of we need to see that automobile go faster, and I’m getting the replace after the Dash. It’s good to get knowledge and break up the automobiles, it’s undoubtedly the best determination. I did the very best I might immediately so we could be on for factors tomorrow.”
We’ll see if Haas can ship these factors in only a few quick hours.
