Nico Hulkenberg rounded off his impressive British Grand Prix weekend with an equally remarkable run to sixth place in last Sunday’s event, an unexpected but fully deserved achievement for the Haas driver.
Hulkenberg had approached his race at Silverstone with a cautious stance, even after defying pre-race predictions by securing an outstanding P6 on the grid.
But despite his reservations, the German charger managed to translate his qualifying pace into a strong race result, skillfully navigating the event’s challenges and changing conditions and capitalizing on opportunities.
After crossing the finish line in P6, Hulkenberg’s demeanor in parc fermé clearly reflected the satisfaction of achieving a result far better than he had anticipated.
"It's of course very nice to be rewarded with eight points. It's already the second weekend in a row that I've finished sixth," Hulkenberg told Motorsport.com .
"It's unexpected, but I think it's deserved. We worked hard for it and did everything right, didn't make any mistakes and applied a good strategy."
At Silverstone, Haas introduced a comprehensive new aero package for its VF-24, the centerpiece of which was a new floor design. And the changes clearly delivered a performance boost.
"The best thing is that the updates we have now are really doing something for the performance of the car. I think that's why we can really fight for fifth place in the constructors' championship,” commented Hulkenberg.
“Sometimes that's with the Astons, sometimes with the Alpines and sometimes with others," he says.
"I think we're really in there now. This season we've been quite consistent, we can benefit from that."
©Haas
The future Audi/Sauber driver admitted that nobody had anticipated that Haas would be doing so well at the half-way point of the 2024 F1 season.
"Nobody expected this, but we are doing just as well as the others - and maybe even better," he added.
"I think it also depends a bit on the track or the weekend, but we'll see. But I think it's a great comeback story anyway!”
The 36-year-old F1 veteran paid tribute to Haas’ engineers who have worked tirelessly to design and produce the US outfit’s development parts.
"They have just done an excellent job," he said. "They have worked well and without mistakes and we see that the correlation [between the wind tunnel and the car] is not bad either.
“We have of course made some changes in the technical and aerodynamic team at the end of last year, and I think this is the result of that."
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