AUSTIN — On Thursday on the Circuit of the Individuals Nico Hülkenberg met with the assembled media, together with SB Nation, in Haas’ hospitality area. 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 appeared to be working significantly 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 ready to start out sixth, with Magnussen proper behind him on the grid in eighth.
Staff Principal Ayao Komatsu hailed the “wonderful outcome” after the session.
“That was a tremendous outcome,” stated Komatsu. “On the medium tires, Kevin was on prime of it and doing very well and Nico was truly taking part in catch-up, he wasn’t as pleased with the automobile as Kevin. In the direction of the tip of SQ2, Nico had fairly an enormous water leak difficulty so it was actually contact and go as to if we may ship him out in SQ3 however everybody within the storage did a tremendous job to get him out; once we left the storage, there was solely a ten second margin.
“On used softs he delivered an excellent 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 believe the factor is we’ve extra potential, so it’s a extremely good day.”
Hülkenberg virtually appeared shocked on the outcome after the session, which he described as “difficult” in his feedback.
“I’ll must 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 believe we had been fortunate to make it by way of, so I didn’t count on that. We bought fortunate, and in SQ2 it bought higher, and it bought 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 ready to get the improve following the F1 Dash Race, was not “too shocked” on the outcome given the energy the group has proven to date this weekend.
“I believe 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 bought each automobiles into SQ3, with Nico simply acing it when he must on that final lap,” stated 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 additional 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 positively the proper determination. I did the most effective I may right now so we could be on for factors tomorrow.”
We’ll see if Haas can ship these factors in just some quick hours.
