Nico Hulkenberg says Haas’ chronic tyre degradation issues forced him down “a one way street in the wrong direction” in last Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.
The German driver’s weekend in Montreal was a story of endless regression that started with a grid demotion from P2 to P5 on Saturday after his remarkable performance in qualifying, due to a minor red flag infringement.
And the downslide continued on race day.
Hulkenberg managed to remain among the top-six at the start of the race but eventually his car's lack of pace in race trim and two-stop strategy, which was undermined by the race’s early Safety Car, pushed him down into the lower tier of F1’s midfield where he ended his afternoon.
©Haas
“It was a one-way street in the wrong direction,” said the Hulk after the race.
“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.”
The F1 veteran admitted that his car’s performance on race day was very different to its strength in qualifying, with tyre degradation still the VF-23’s main weak point.
“It was a one-way street in the wrong direction,” said Hulkenberg of his race.
“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.
“[In terms of] tyre management or tyre deg, maybe not so much here, but it was more pace that I felt we were missing compared to some of our main competitors.
“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.”
The German sid that he had produced an extra effort at the start to try and hold his own among the front runners, but could not avoid being engulfed by the pack.
“You're just being bombarded and you're hanging on by your teeth,” he said. “It's not that fun. It is what it is.”
Hulkenberg also urged his team to work on a long-term solution for its tyre deg troubles.
“It's tough to take, especially during the moment,” he added. “But I think we have to think ahead longer term and think of the long-term solution for this.
“I think there's nothing really that we can do with set-up to fix this. I think that it's a bigger issue, so we're very much aware of it."
Haas boss Guenther Steiner agreed with his driver that the US outfit’s engineers need to put their heads together to solve its undermining degradation problems.
“It’s pretty clear now, obviously the result is not what we should be doing and it’s very disappointing,” said Steiner.
“I think we know where to look, the issue is as soon as we get into traffic and behind cars, our degradation is immense – we cannot get the tyre performance back and we just slip back.
“We can clearly see it, as soon as we get away from free air and start to fight, we just degrade. We know really what we need to look for, and we’ll be looking for it.
“We need to put our heads together and try to find a solution to this and not hide behind good qualifying results.”
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