Team Talk - Sunday in Montreal

Haas F1 Team

Nico Hulkenberg (GER) Haas VF-24 waves at the end of the race. 09.06.2024. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 9, Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal, Canada, Race Day. - www.xpbimages.com, EMail: requests@xpbimages.com © Copyright: Coates / XPB Images
Nico Hulkenberg
"With Tsunoda's spin, I tried to react, stop it, and somehow avoid him, but it must've been by a few millimeters – I was braced for impact. The first 10 laps went really well but then the track dried out, so all the work came undone again, but we knew about that scenario. I think it was a clean race, no mistakes, but I think we got a little bit unlucky with one of the safety cars, I feel like we missed out. At the end, it was good to wait a little bit later for the slicks because it was difficult in the first sector to keep it on the track. I gained a few positions there but then I was running in a train with others. I was running high downforce so on the straights I was a sitting duck, and without DRS I was going pretty slow."

Kevin Magnussen
"It didn't feel like we got the best out of it today with all the opportunity that race offered, we didn't seem to capitalize on that, so that's disappointing. We'll review and try to understand it as right now it's all a bit blurred, but there was lots of opportunity, that's for sure, and we didn't get any points. We had one very slow pit stop and one medium slow pit stop, and I also think we pitted for inters off from the full wets too early. It felt like something was coming at the beginning of the race but there's nothing to show for it."

Ayao Komatsu, team principal
"It was a pretty frustrating day unfortunately as I think we made the right choice putting both drivers on wet tyres, that was good. Both Kevin and Nico did a good a very good job, made lots of positions up and we pitted at the right time for inters with Kevin, only for our pit stop issue to undo our gains, which is frustrating. In terms of pace, with Kevin we wanted to go on to the slicks early, but in hindsight, it was too early, and Nico's timing was absolutely perfect. On the last set of tyres for Kevin, the pace came back, so again it's just frustrating that with certain parts we showed we had the speed and potential, but we just didn't put it together for the needs of our drivers. Finishing just outside of the top 10, we have to regroup and go again in Barcelona, but today it wasn't great operationally, so we need to review and make sure we improve as a race team."