A year of marked improvement

©Haas

The team picture

• Constructors standing: P8, 37 points

The good news is that compared to last year, Haas have had a much better time of things. They were dead last at the end of 2021 with zero points, which doesn't get much worse and will have cost them significantly in terms of their share of prize money. But that was after making an intentional decision to limit development of their existing car, and to field two total rookies, so it's not like they wouldn't have seen it coming.

That strategy could only be justified if the money they saved produced a much better car in 2022, and at least one if not both drivers ready to break through in their sophomore season. There was qualified success on the former front - Haas had a car in the top ten in the first two races of the season - but after having to jettison their Russian sponsors Uralkali they seemed to quickly run out of money to maintain development across the season.

As for the rookie drivers, Nikita Mazepin departed before the start of the season with the team having to revert to former driver Kevin Magnussen at very short notice before the curtain raiser in Bahrain. Now they've also dropped Mick Schumacher; so much for all that future talent development.

The driver line-up

• Kevin Magnussen: P13, 25 points
• Mick Schumacher: P16, 12 points

When Kevin Magnussen left the team at the end of 2020 it was as part of a clean sweep to set Haas up for the future. But now Magnussen is back, and as expected his F1 experience put him firmly on top in terms of this year's driver line-up, with two points finishes in the opening two races of the season. He went on to score points in seven races in total and of course claimed his maiden pole in Brazil thanks to nailing the timing of his Q3 run in fast-changing conditions.

Mick Schumacher only finished in the points on two occasions, with his best finish of sixth place coming in Austria. Before that there had been been some very costly accidents that had team principal Guenther Steiner fretting about the team's dwindling budget. But in fact it was Magnussen who had more DNFs over the season (five to Schumacher's two), and the young German actually finished ahead of the Dane in 12 races to Magnussen's nine.

That's a lot closer between the pair than you might think, given the way that Schumacher was dumped from the team line-up at the end of the season. Hopefully he'll find inspiration in his new home at Mercedes as their 2023 reserve driver.

How 2023 is looking for Haas F1

Steiner has a wealth of motor racing experience behind him, but it's hard to see what his medium- to long-term plan is for Haas. Using last year to try to develop two rookie drivers during a development freeze made a certain amount of sense, but this year he's seemed to do a volte face on the whole idea and go old school in terms of his 2023 driver line-up.

True, Mazepin's departure was not voluntary but rather a response to the Russian action in Ukraine; but Schumacher's exit was much stranger given that he had shown signs of improvement. Was it really just down to the cost of those accidents in Saudi Arabia, Monaco and Suzuka?

Money certainly seems to be a major headache for them. Team owner Gene Haas has deep pockets but not bottomless ones. He's not thrilled paying out vast sums for so little visible success. Maybe now the team has a new title sponsor for 2023 in Moneygram, things can start to improve, but in all likelihood it's probably too late to make a big impact on their prospects for 2023. And a solid pair of hands though he undoubtedly is, Nick Hulkenberg doesn't seem like the man to turn things around either.

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