Nico Hülkenberg: Canadian GP “was a one-way street in the wrong direction”

Nico Hülkenberg was downbeat following a poor Canadian Grand Prix for himself and Haas F1 Team, which saw him fall from fifth all the way down to fifteenth, with the American team struggling with their race pace.

Hülkenberg was disappointed with his performance but admitted it was expected. The German qualified on the front row in the wet Saturday qualifying session but was demoted to fifth after a three-place grid penalty. However, a fifth-place start was still impressive but the harsh reality of Haas’ race pace struggles saw him fall all the way down the order.

The German driver said that the team has a lot of work to do if they are to turn their good qualifying performances into good race performances, with their long-run pace and consistency really lacking.

“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.”

Kevin Magnussen: “We were just lacking pace”

Kevin Magnussen reiterated the points that Hülkenberg made saying that he struggled with pace and in particular the tyres compared to everyone else during the race.

Magnussen finished in seventeenth, falling back from his starting position of thirteenth, and despite losing time during an incident with Nyck de Vries, the Dane has demanded that the team continue to work hard on improving their pace on the Sunday so they can capitalize on the good qualifying pace they have shown multiple times this season.

“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.”

Magnussen and Haas will be hoping their performance can improve with Williams Racing now just one point behind them in the Constructors Championship, and in good form following Alex Albon’s seventh place finish in Montreal.