Hulkenberg looking at 'a couple of weekends' to be at his best

Formula 1 returnee Nico Hulkenberg reckons he'll need a couple of race weekends to get back to his best level with Haas.

Hulkenberg spent the last few seasons as F1's super-sub, enjoying a handful of outings in 2020 and 2022 with Racing Point/Aston Martin F1, but the German hasn't raced full-time in F1 since 2019, his final year with Renault.

Hulkenberg was in action on Thursday in Bahrain for the opening day of pre-season testing, the 35-year-old running in the morning segment of the session and clocking in P11 overall at the end of the day with 51 laps under his belt.

Teammate Kevin Magnussen rounded off the field of runners in the afternoon with 57 laps of mileage, the Dane ending up over half a second behind Hulkenberg as the team diligently worked towards understanding the fundamental characteristics of its VF-23.

"There is no rule of thumb or there’s no law for that," said the latter when asked how long it would take for him to return to his best level.

"There’s obviously a feeling that you build and for some it comes back faster. For some it takes longer.

"But I’d like to think that within a couple of weekends I can be close to my best and keep building and keep going from there."

• Read also: Hulkenberg 'ready to go' after intense two months

There were no major issues to report in the Haas camp on either side of the US outfit's garage. However, the Hulk wisely insists that it's "early days", with lots of things to explore and improve.

But that’s' a process that Hulkenberg says he actually enjoys.

"It’s early days. That’s where you start working to exploit the car, exploit the limits," he added.

"Obviously, this is only where it starts. It’s a long, long road and still many things to work on to improve on.

"I always enjoyed this time in these exciting early days because there’s so much to explore and so much to see and to work on.

"You take it all in, you process it, you work with the team, with your engineers, and you come up the next day with the new things that you didn’t try again. You feel it, you work through it over and over again. So it’s exciting."

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