After qualifying a promising 12th place at Suzuka, Hülkenberg lost after the red flag when his anti-stall system triggered on the second start. This dropped him to 17th position before making the first pit stop of the race, on lap five.
However, the German then had two good stints on hard tires. He passed five drivers on the track, including Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll on the final lap, en route to an 11th place finish, less than six seconds behind AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in 10th.
Hülkenberg admitted that the result was “as good as it could be” after his second failed launch: “Honestly, I’m a little surprised that I managed to get back to where I did. I think it’s half a miracle, to be honest. It showed that we had good pace.
“It’s obviously a shame because we probably could have fought Yuki or beaten Yuki to a point, it was up for grabs – but Hamilton is 50 seconds down the road so it’s obviously a bit out of reach. “
Hülkenberg is excited about the pace of the VF-24 after setting the 11th fastest lap, nine tenths faster than any other driver in the bottom five teams – except Logan Sargeant, who opted for soft tires at the end of the race.
“What I take away from today is that we have a package with which we can fight the other midfield teams and, to be honest, it was even better than I expected ” added Hülkenberg, although he failed to score for the first time since the season. -opening in Bahrain.
“I had a lot of headaches before the race, I wasn’t expecting that. But it went a lot better. So you know, I’m taking that one with pleasure and I’m looking forward to it. ‘other good races.’
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas F1 Team
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
While Hulkenberg praised a “much stronger” aerodynamic platform allowing the car to be “much more consistent”, team boss Ayao Komatsu had a more perfectionist view after the race, with Haas remaining a solid seventh in the championship. manufacturers despite a score of fewer points. exit.
“In the end, as you can see, we don’t have enough downforce at high speeds,” said the Japanese. “So that’s what we need to improve. And then some features of the front axle of the car that we need to improve.”
Yet Komatsu was still keen to highlight the positives: “Yesterday my goal was to try and get just one car into Q2. And for Nico to achieve 12th place was incredible. [that] Today, it’s going to be really difficult to stay in this position. But we went back [at the second start] and we managed to recover that well.
“Suzuka, in terms of our strengths and weaknesses, this circuit really exposes the weaknesses of our car. So, if we can do it on this circuit, that’s positive. And then we try to bring the new parts aggressively in the future.”
Watch: The 2025 F1 Calendar – Does It Make Sense?
After qualifying a promising 12th place at Suzuka, Hülkenberg lost after the red flag when his anti-stall system triggered on the second start. This dropped him to 17th position before making the first pit stop of the race, on lap five.
However, the German then had two good stints on hard tires. He passed five drivers on the track, including Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll on the final lap, en route to an 11th place finish, less than six seconds behind AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in 10th.
Hülkenberg admitted that the result was “as good as it could be” after his second failed launch: “Honestly, I’m a little surprised that I managed to get back to where I did. I think it’s half a miracle, to be honest. It showed that we had good pace.
“It’s obviously a shame because we probably could have fought Yuki or beaten Yuki to a point, it was up for grabs – but Hamilton is 50 seconds down the road so it’s obviously a bit out of reach. “
Hülkenberg is excited about the pace of the VF-24 after setting the 11th fastest lap, nine tenths faster than any other driver in the bottom five teams – except Logan Sargeant, who opted for soft tires at the end of the race.
“What I take away from today is that we have a package with which we can fight the other midfield teams and, to be honest, it was even better than I expected ” added Hülkenberg, although he failed to score for the first time since the season. -opening in Bahrain.
“I had a lot of headaches before the race, I wasn’t expecting that. But it went a lot better. So you know, I’m taking that one with pleasure and I’m looking forward to it. ‘other good races.’
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas F1 Team
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
While Hulkenberg praised a “much stronger” aerodynamic platform allowing the car to be “much more consistent”, team boss Ayao Komatsu had a more perfectionist view after the race, with Haas remaining a solid seventh in the championship. manufacturers despite a score of fewer points. exit.
“In the end, as you can see, we don’t have enough downforce at high speeds,” said the Japanese. “So that’s what we need to improve. And then some features of the front axle of the car that we need to improve.”
Yet Komatsu was still keen to highlight the positives: “Yesterday my goal was to try and get just one car into Q2. And for Nico to achieve 12th place was incredible. [that] Today, it’s going to be really difficult to stay in this position. But we went back [at the second start] and we managed to recover that well.
“Suzuka, in terms of our strengths and weaknesses, this circuit really exposes the weaknesses of our car. So, if we can do it on this circuit, that’s positive. And then we try to bring the new parts aggressively in the future.”
Watch: The 2025 F1 Calendar – Does It Make Sense?