{"id":17239,"date":"2023-11-07T12:13:02","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T17:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=17239"},"modified":"2023-11-07T12:13:02","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T17:13:02","slug":"nico-hulkenberg-haas-upgrades-not-a-clear-step-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/11\/07\/nico-hulkenberg-haas-upgrades-not-a-clear-step-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Nico Hulkenberg: Haas upgrades &#8220;not a clear step forward&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Nico Hulkenberg explains that Haas&#8217;s only upgrade package for 2023 has failed to improve the VF-23&#8217;s performance.<\/h3>\n<p>With various teams and narratives taking F1 headlines in recent weeks, one outfit has been noticeably absent. Guenther Steiner&#8217;s Haas is in a tricky predicament heading into next season.<\/p>\n<p>At the start of 2023, the Haas team principal promised there was a meaningful development plan for this year. In recent months, however, it became clear that only one major upgrade package would arrive at the VF-23.<\/p>\n<p>These updates were fitted for the American GP in Texas. The Sprint weekend format compromised their efforts in COTA, as evidenced by their pitlane start. A lack of practice time (necessary to optimise) set-up seems a viable excuse for their performance in this instance.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/11\/01\/f1-news-haas-reveal-plans-for-very-promising-oliver-bearman\/\" target=\"_self\">However, the same cannot be said for Mexico<\/a> or Interlagos. Despite a relatively small sample size to draw from, Nico Hulkenberg seems confident the American team hasn&#8217;t made any progress.<\/p>\n<p>Introducing updates so late in the season would always present a challenge. What likely wasn&#8217;t anticipated, though, was the changes wouldn&#8217;t bring about any improvement.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"BRBcUle4T_14ngen_ypTrA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1765316655\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'BRBcUle4T_14ngen_ypTrA',sig:'IOKGYFxGdJWgqCwHuo7znRc7a-ih1rS-8ToSw4kw1Qk=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1765316655',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Hulkenberg pessimistic<\/h3>\n<p>Speaking after <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/11\/05\/verstappen-wins-in-brazil-as-alonso-delivers-masterclass-for-3rd\/\" target=\"_self\">the Brazilian GP,<\/a> Hulkenberg outlined the current consensus on Haas&#8217; updates:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;It&#8217;s not a clear step forward. We understand that now, and we know that,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/sport.sky.de\/formel1\/artikel\/lewis-hamilton-und-toto-wolff-von-mercedes-performance-entsetzt\/13001643\/35311\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sky Germany<\/a> quotes him as saying.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;It feels similar in some places, better in some and worse in some.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;At the end of the day, it&#8217;s balanced. But we actually needed a real step in performance. Unfortunately, that didn&#8217;t happen.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This failure will have short-term consequences, most notably in the 2023 constructors standings. Unless there is a significant change in fortunes, Haas will end this season in last place.<\/p>\n<p>AlphaTauri has taken a considerable step forward, with Williams comfortably ahead. Only Alfa Romeo is within touching distance, but even then, there isn&#8217;t much reason to expect Guenther Steiner&#8217;s team to score points.<\/p>\n<p>The bigger concern will be Haas&#8217; prospects for 2024. There is no clear direction for next season, given that the only upgrades to the VF-23 haven&#8217;t yielded any results.<\/p>\n<p>Once again, the American outfit is playing catch-up in F1. It is clear this strategy is not sustainable, and the future is looking increasingly grey for the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nico Hulkenberg explains that Haas&#8217;s only upgrade package for 2023 has failed to improve the VF-23&#8217;s performance. With various teams and narratives taking F1 headlines in recent weeks, one outfit has been noticeably absent. Guenther Steiner&#8217;s Haas is in a tricky predicament heading into next season. At the start of 2023, the Haas team principal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":17242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2186,68,23,346,256],"class_list":["post-17239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2023-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-haas","tag-nico-hulkenberg"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}