Why Haas's faith in Hulkenberg has been vindicated

Had Formula 1’s stewarding team taken a slightly different approach to ordering the field after the controversial and final Melbourne safety car, Nico Hulkenberg's 184-race streak without a podium could have come to an end.

That Haas appealed the results, on the grounds that the order for the 2022 British Grand Prix’s red-flagged start was set at the second safety car line ahead of the first corner, was unsurprising given the team is also without a podium finish in the 147 races it has entered. Regardless, crossing the line in seventh was an excellent result for Hulkenberg, who has apparently lost none of his guile and determination from his first stints in F1. Even after three years having to be content with occasional substitute appearances, the German looked to be a shrewd move from Haas’s management heading into 2023.

But, when it became apparent last year that Hulkenberg was one of the favourites for a Haas drive, it was met with more than a few raised eyebrows.

The perception was framed as thus: why would Haas replace a promising 23-year-old Mick Schumacher, who has the surname and the genes of a seven-time world champion, with a 35-year-old who had been out of a full-time drive for three years? Surely, Schumacher had much more potential – and if Haas could simply unearth the gem that had been largely hiding during a two-year stint, it would have a devastatingly effective racer on its hands. If.

After all, Schumacher had come into the team as an F3 and F2 title winner, joining the American squad for 2021 alongside Nikita Mazepin. The team was in a difficult situation, having been in an increasingly precarious financial state and was forced into a state of parsimony to make it into the cost-cap enforced period of 2022 and beyond. As such, Haas was pouring all its resources into the 2022 technical regulations, and so Schumacher and Mazepin had to contend with a 2020 car with a 2021-spec floor. In effect, they drove a worse version of the previous year’s already-troubled car.

The expectation was that Schumacher would trounce Mazepin, and it panned out as such; the Russian was beaten 20-2 in qualifying, although it was seldom anything other than the difference between 19th and 20th. But there had been glimmers of pace from Schumacher in a troubled car, and getting into Q2 in Paul Ricard (albeit helped by his own wall-bothering antics) and Turkey were rare highlights for Haas. If the 2022 car was good, then Schumacher was certainly set to rake in some points.

After a tough rookie F1 season with a slow car, much more was expected of Schumacher in 2022

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Instead, owing to the implications of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Schumacher was no longer up against Mazepin. Kevin Magnussen rejoined Haas after a year out of F1, and immediately put his young German team-mate under the microscope. For his part, Schumacher had a benchmark that he could measure himself against; if he could regularly beat Magnussen, then his progression would be much more evident when also armed with a far stronger car.

But it didn’t quite pan out like that. Magnussen, despite spending 2022 racing in IMSA and with a one-off IndyCar outing, had quickly reacquainted himself with F1 life. Haas, for its part, had developed a competitive 2022 car and the Dane hurled it to seventh on the grid for the Bahrain opener – and finished fifth in an excellent return to the championship. Schumacher qualified in 12th and finished 11th, nearly 10 seconds behind debutant Zhou Guanyu.

With the pressure arguably on Schumacher for the Saudi Arabia follow-up, he suffered the first of two car-breaking accidents in qualifying at Jeddah – his car bisecting itself as he took too much kerb at Turn 9 to earn a one-way trip to the barrier. It slapped Haas with a hefty repair bill, allegedly around the $1 million mark. In Monaco, the cost was about the same when Schumacher dived into the wall at La Piscine during the race to bring out a red flag.

In Haas’s case in 2023, it has a car that although quick, has struggled for consistent pace in races. It needs Magnussen and Hulkenberg’s input to help alleviate that, and the results now seem to be coming

Ultimately, Schumacher scored less than half of Magnussen’s 25-point tally from 2022, managing just 12 points from his eighth- and sixth-place finishes at Silverstone and Austria. But the damage had, quite literally, already been done. As Magnussen had been showing in the meantime how an experienced hand behind the wheel could turn its fortunes around, the team had cast its net around for other options.

Ferrari reserve Antonio Giovinazzi got a run-out in practice for the United States Grand Prix, but his FP1 trip to the Turn 6 wall marked his card. Besides, the Italian had been completely ineffective in his short Formula E tenure with the Dragon Penske team, and thoroughly outclassed by Sergio Sette Camara while there. Hulkenberg, Gene Haas and Gunther Steiner had surmised, was the best option.

It was through misfortune that Hulkenberg had found himself briefly outside of F1. He’d largely matched Daniel Ricciardo at Renault but, once Esteban Ocon became available, the team felt that it could prepare for the future with the lanky Frenchman behind the wheel. But when Sergio Perez caught COVID in 2020, Hulkenberg was granted two outings for Racing Point at the Silverstone double-header – and took third on the grid for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

But there was nothing of substance in the offing for Hulkenberg for the 2021 season despite his impressive substitute outings; a brief discussion with Red Bull over its second seat in place of Alex Albon ultimately went nowhere, and he only returned to the wheel in 2022 when Sebastian Vettel also contracted COVID at the start of the year. But with minimal preparation, Hulkenberg proved himself in each of his races as a deputy – and crucially, kept the car ‘on the island’.

Hulkenberg's super sub outings across his three years without a full-time seat impressed the F1 paddock

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar

In the cost cap age, Haas no longer needed to rely on drivers with their own sponsorship deals, and the MoneyGram title sponsorship deal meant that it could pay for experience. It had served the team well when it had Magnussen and Romain Grosjean in the ranks, and the team felt that its experiments with rookie drivers had set it back somewhat. After all, Haas is still the youngest team on the grid, and the direction it once had from the battle-hardened drivers it employed in the early years had somewhat subsided.

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Hulkenberg, having driven for Williams, Force India, and Renault, offered experience in spades. Although much of F1’s fanbase had become enamoured with Schumacher and his pleasant, unassuming nature, being a nice young man counts for little in F1 if results do not back it up.

In Haas’s case in 2023, it has a car that although quick, has struggled for consistent pace in races. It needs Magnussen and Hulkenberg’s input to help alleviate that, and the results now seem to be coming. Even the most ardent Schumacher fan would struggle to argue that the younger German could have achieved Hulkenberg’s starring turns so far this year.

“That's why we took [Hulkenberg],” Steiner enthused. “You think I say that with hindsight, but I think we all know that with this regulation that was the trend everyone is going. There are 10 good teams there. Now, they're all working on a very similar budget, they have got all good drivers, they're all solid financially, they're all solid technically.

“So what is happening is it's getting closer, everything. And big things like a driver will make a difference, just to get the best out immediately. And that is what we wanted, just an experienced driver who can get us in that direction. So obviously, we are pretty happy with what happened.”

The Melbourne race proved that Haas’s decision to bring Hulkenberg on board has been somewhat vindicated. Making it to Q3 for the second time this season was already impressive, but his steadfast presence in the points-scoring positions was also worthy of praise; although his defence against Lando Norris eventually fell apart by going too wide at Turn 12, Hulkenberg made life incredibly difficult for the McLaren driver and forced him to resort to an unorthodox cutback at the previous corner.

Hulkenberg also kept his wits about him on the final restart, moving up to fourth when the drivers ahead of him made catastrophic errors on cold tyres. With Sainz ahead and already encumbered by a five-second penalty, there was a chance that the veteran could finally stand on the podium after years of near-misses and midfield toils. Alas, it proved to be another false dawn when the results were counted back to the start, but few would have begrudged him of the chance to flank Max Verstappen on the rostrum given his lack of luck in the past.

Had pivotal stewards' calls gone his way, Hulkenberg could've broken his podium duck in the Australian GP

Photo by: Mark Sutton

When he entered F1, Hulkenberg was considered a prodigious talent thanks to his complete domination of the 2009 GP2 season. He’d won the F3 title in 2008, the A1GP series with Team Germany in 2006-07, and more or less everything he’d turned his hand to before that. With Michael Schumacher’s reign of F1 dominance having ended, Vettel had been considered his heir apparent.

Hulkenberg, for a time, was slated to challenge that perception. But although his pole at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2010 with Williams offered a slight hint at his talent, the team’s grave financial situation led it to taking on Pastor Maldonado and his PDVSA money in his place for 2011.

Hulkenberg was never granted the opportunity to be anything more than an impressive midfield driver. But that’s exactly what Haas needed as it tries to rebuild its F1 fortunes after some lean years

Although Hulkenberg returned to the grid in 2012 with Force India, and had even got as far as talks with Ferrari over replacing Felipe Massa at the team before Kimi Raikkonen was re-hired, he was never granted the opportunity to be anything more than an impressive midfield driver. But that’s exactly what Haas needed as it tries to rebuild its F1 fortunes after some lean years at the turn of the decade, and it is exactly what Hulkenberg needs for a career Indian summer after too long in the wilderness.

If Hulkenberg can keep his form going, particularly amid a tight midfield battle, Haas’s faith in him will continue to offer potentially big rewards over the coming year. But, following his strong points haul Down Under, the decision to bring him into the fold has arguably already paid off.

What can Hulkenberg produce for Haas for the rest of the 2023 season?

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images