Nico Hülkenberg came home in P9 at the Australian GP, scoring points for the second consecutive time this year. He was happy with how the car behaved in the race and knows Haas needs to keep working hard.
The American outfit showed great teamwork once again and scored a double-point finish in Melbourne. This is a crucial result for the team, considering how tight the midfield is and how difficult it is to score points.
The German driver said that he was happy with the pace and, even though Haas was lucky with the VSC, it was important to maximize the result.
“Interesting race, the pace was better than expected. The first VSC helped my race a lot since I could ‘steal’ a faster pit stop and that worked out pretty well.
“It’s important [to score double points when the midfield is so tight], the race is definitely on and for me, it was really positive and encouraging. The car felt better than yesterday with a high load of fuel in the long run compared to a single lap in qualifying. We never had that last year, so that comes in handy.”
Hülkenberg also praised the team’s work to build such a better car compared to last season, and he also praised Kevin Magnussen for the great work today.
“[Good performance] comes from good work, the aerodynamic department did a really good job in a small amount of time during the winter.
“Today we [referring to his teammate Magnussen] worked well once again. Obviously, we got a bit lucky as well, with the VSC and two cars retiring, but we will take those.”
Finally, he stated that Haas needs to work hard to perform well in Japan, too. The goal is to keep developing the car, unlike 2023, where Haas got outdeveloped by other outfits.
“I hope so, I wish,” he said when asked if Haas can perform well in Japan. “I mean, we have to prove it and it never comes easy. We have to put in the hard work and get the setup right. We need to develop the car from where we are now because last year we didn’t do that and paid a big price by the end of the season.”