'Hopefully It Is A Wake-Up Call To Everybody In The Factory': Says Disappointed Hulkenberg
F1Tuesday, 31 October 2023 at 19:00
Haas F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg reacted to the performance of his car after the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
After a double finish of the Haas team outside of the points during the United States Grand Prix, Nico Hulkenberg went to Mexico City with hopes for improvement.
Sunday's race was the 200th in his career, and it would be perfect to score points on this day for the German driver. And for a while, points looked achievable for Hulkenberg.
Starting from the 12th place, he managed to fight his way through to the eighth position on the gird, but all his progress was erased after the crash of his teammate Kevin Magnussen.
Red flags were waved, and all the cars came back to the pits. When the race was restarted, Hulkenberg fell to tenth position, which he then defended "like a lion," as Fernando Alonso would say.
The 36-year-old basically spent the whole second part of the race from the restart defending against drivers behind him. However, it was a question of time before his tires would give up on him.
By the end of the race, Hulkenberg got passed by both Alpine drivers - Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, as well as Yuki Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant (who had to retire in the last lap).
The Haas driver seemed really frustrated after the end of the Mexico City Grand Prix as he pointed the finger at people in the factory saying this is price for not bringing upgrades.
"It's inevitable. We're paying a price for not bringing upgrades, for not finding performance. Hopefully, it is a wake-up call to everybody in the factory because at this rate, you just can't compete in F1."
Haas brought a big upgrade to Austin for the sprint race weekend, which ended up not working out for the team. Hulkenberg suggested that maybe the older version of the car might have performed better this weekend. On the other hand, his team has to stick with upgrades from now on.
"I don't know, I have a feeling that maybe the old-spec would have been better here, but obviously it is a one-way street for us with the future."
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