F1 News: Haas Excited For New Upgrades - "Not Easy But Looking Forward"
Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg reveal their excitement over the team's latest upgrades for the remainder of the 2023 season at the Circuit Of The Americas (COTA) this weekend, thus offering the American team more hope and performance for the last 5 races of the year.
The team has got some catching up to do as they managed to score just 12 points this year, as opposed to 34 points at the same time last year. But with the performance upgrades in Austin and with a second consecutive Sprint race weekend ahead of them, both Haas drivers were eager to try their hands on their upgraded cars.
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Speaking to the media, Hulkenberg said on Thursday:
"We are [excited], very, very much.
"Obviously, we’re only really going to learn and find out about it once we hit the track tomorrow, and it’s going to be a busy, hectic weekend, given that it’s a Sprint.
"On top of that, obviously we have this new car to get our head around and only one hour of practice and then we go into parc ferme, so not easy but, obviously, it’s been a long time coming and look forward to try the new toys!”
Teammate Magnussen also commented on the "very different" upgrade:
“It's nice to see the upgrade on the car finally.
"It's been a tough year in terms of just finding performance. The guys have been really struggling this year to make gains on the car we've had, and this upgrade is an exciting one because it's very different.
"On paper, it's not actually meant to be more downforce as such, but it's a new concept and it's hopefully the concept that we'll be using for next year's car. And if not a big gain in performance, then at least it's some good learning and research into next year.”
Speaking about their biggest challenge this season, Magnussen said that the car never treated its tires gently. He added:
“I think a big problem with our car this year has been that it doesn't treat the tyres very well in the race, so we are often… we'll just struggle with tyre life in the races.
"The pace that other people are able to maintain, we seem to fall off much more, and that problem might be – although you're not putting extra downforce on, like peak downforce [with the new package] – if you can [improve] the characteristics of the car, the through-corner balance, hopefully the structure and the strength of the [air] flow on the car, that could solve that issue, or help that issue. So that's of course what we'll be hoping.”
More Funding Brings More Upgrades
With the upgrades coming in despite just five races being left for the season, the Danish racing driver gave due credit to title sponsor MoneyGram for making it possible. He continued:
“It's a good sponsorship. It's money, and we all know what that means in Formula 1. I think this situation we have right now where we have five races left of the season and we're bringing a fairly substantial upgrade – that is something that wouldn't have happened in the past.
"We haven't brought many upgrades this year, but that's because the team hasn't found the improvements that justified producing a big upgrade and spending that money for not a big gain. So they've changed concept and they're now finding much more in the wind tunnel, and it looks much more promising for future development.
"So bringing this upgrade with that few races to go is a very positive thing. As I said, of course we're hopeful that it will improve our pace on track right now, but even if it isn't, then it's still very good learning and very good research for next year's development.”
In addition to the performance upgrade, the VF-23 F1 car and the drivers will sport the ‘Stars and Stripes’ livery for all its home races in the United States this season.
