"Nothing": F1 driver's sobering verdict on the impact made to the car by Haas upgrades

Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg recently criticized his team's B-spec car they introduced in the final stages of the 2023 F1 season, stating that there were no major improvements from the previous machine. The German driver has been quite outspoken in terms of his team's development and has urged the outfit to do better.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, the Haas driver claimed that nothing had been achieved with the B-spec car. He said that the team had to be honest with themselves and accept the fact that their work to entirely rebuild the car did not result in a faster machine. He said:

“Nothing. [It’s] sobering and alarming. You can’t hide that. We have to be honest with ourselves and admit that it doesn’t meet our standards when we do so much work to rebuild the car and then the end result is almost the same. It’s our job to do better next year.”

When asked whether the team had learned anything that they could apply in 2024, Hulkenberg added:

“I can’t say that with confidence right now. We’ll probably have to organise ourselves a little differently internally so that the same thing doesn’t happen again.”

Haas ended the season on a low, scoring only 12 points and finishing dead last in the Constructors Championship.

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Nico Hulkenberg's damning message to Haas' factory regarding VF-23's development

Nico Hulkenberg was a prime critic of Haas' VF-23. Even after the upgrade that the American-based team brought in for the 2023 F1 United States GP, Hulkenberg assessed it and claimed that it was not faster than before.

Speaking to Sky Germany, he stated that the similar performance of an upgraded car is a clear message to the factory that they need to drastically change their development path for 2024. He said:

“I have demonstrated that the new car is not faster. And that is quite clearly a problem," Hulkenberg said. "It’s a message to our factory, the engineers and the mechanics. Next year, we have to do things differently. That has been our problem this year. Our development was at a standstill.”

After driving the updated car, Nico Hulkenberg decided to return to the old-spec car for the last two races. His teammate, Kevin Magnussen, continued to drive the new car.