18/06/2023
NEWS STORY
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen finished 15th and 17th respectively at the Canadian Grand Prix, Round 9 of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, held Sunday at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, Montreal.
Hulkenberg started from fifth place on Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires and ran towards the upper end of the midfield through the first stint of the race. The German pitted on lap 11, switching to White hard tires, but just one lap later the safety car was deployed when George Russell hit the wall. As others pitted under the safety car the minimized time loss proved beneficial with Hulkenberg subsequently shuffled down the order. He pitted again on lap 31, taking on another set of hard rubber, and preserved the set through to the checkered flag, finishing 15th.
Magnussen took the start from 13th on hard tires and had to take to the run-off at the end of the opening lap to avoid the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, dropping to 15th. The Dane stayed out behind the early safety car, climbing into the top 10, but was taken wide by AlphaTauri's Nyck de Vries at turn 3 on lap 36 when batting for position. Magnussen had to utilize the escape road before returning to the track, losing over half a minute of race time, and dropping towards the rear of the field. Magnussen boxed at the end of the lap, taking on mediums, and made a second stop on lap 54 for the same compound - eventually finishing the race 17th.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team sits eighth overall in the Constructors' Championship on eight points.
Kevin Magnussen: "We were just lacking pace to where we want to be and we struggled with tires again, at least more than the others, so it was a tough one. I think over one lap we have really good pace, we've shown that several times this season, but we need to work hard on trying to keep that strength for Sunday."
Nico Hulkenberg: "It was a one-way street in the wrong direction today. It was to some extent expected, but we obviously always hope for the best so that it's better than what you had in the previous event. It just once again confirms that we have a lot of work to do on the long run pace and entire consistency because that's really hurting our Sunday."
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: "It's pretty clear now, obviously the result is not what we should be doing and it's very disappointing. I think we know where to look, the issue is as soon as we get into traffic and behind cars, our degradation is immense - we cannot get the tire performance back and we just slip back. We can clearly see it, as soon as we get away from free air and start to fight, we just degrade. We know really what we need to look for, and we'll be looking for it. We need to put our heads together and try to find a solution to this and not hide behind good qualifying results."