When Haas announced Mick Schumacher would not remain for a third season in 2023 and Nico Hulkenberg would take his place, it was a clear vote for experience over youth.
It was also a risky call for Guenther Steiner and his team to make, as Hulkenberg had spent the bulk of the three prior seasons on the sidelines and would naturally have to shake off that racing rust – at least in the early part of the year. They needed Hulkenberg to perform, not just to support their efforts to move further up the midfield, but validate their choice of him over Schumacher.
Although the 2023 season did not go the way either Hulkenberg or his new team had hoped, he at least proved that they were absolutely right to place their faith in him. While there were not many stand-out performances from him through the season, that was largely due to the car he had to drive throughout the year.
Haas suffered all season with a chronic tyre degradation over long runs – something that heavily limited both Hulkenberg and team mate Kevin Magnussen’s abilities to fight for points throughout the year. Points did come, of course. But only twice – in Australia and Austria.
That weekend in Melbourne was probably his most outstanding work of the season – and one where he might have even been within a sniff of that elusive first podium. He was quicker than Magnussen across the weekend and secured his second Q3 appearance in the opening three rounds in qualifying. Then in the race, Hulkenberg ran solidly in the top ten from the opening lap until the second red flag.
Restarting from ninth, he evaded the chaos that unfolded ahead of him to jump to fourth place when the race was red flagged for a third time, with a possible penalty for Carlos Sainz Jnr meaning a podium may have been about to fall in his lap. However, the race order was reset to the restart order, minus the two crashed Alpines, leaving him down in less exciting but still very strong seventh place.
Austria was another weekend where Hulkenberg showed what he can still be capable of when given the opportunity. Another Q3 appearance in Friday’s qualifying was followed by a brilliant fourth on the grid for the sprint race. After overtaking Sergio Perez in the opening laps of the wet sprint race, Hulkenberg managed to keep the Red Bull behind him for nine laps before Perez finally got by. Although he fell to sixth by the chequered flag, that was still three well-earned points. Sadly, Hulkenberg never got the chance to fight for…
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