Haas’s F1 trend-breaker won’t last – but could be invaluable

The Haas VF-23’s tyre-chewing tendencies are now well established. Hulkenberg (and sometimes Magnussen) fires in a stunning qualifying lap, then inevitably drops like a stone on race day.

Hulkenberg had made four Q3 appearances prior to this weekend and yet only the Australian GP yielded points, with fifth to 15th last time out in Montreal the most dramatic realisation of Haas’s race day woes.

The Red Bull Ring sprint race was a different story, however, thanks to a particular set of circumstances that prevented Haas from losing a place in the constructors’ championship and instead gained it one.

F1 world constructors’ championship, lower half

6. McLaren – 17
7. Haas – 11
8. Alfa Romeo – 9
9. Williams – 7
10. AlphaTauri – 2

Hulkenberg’s starring role in sprint qualifying – using medium tyres to qualify fourth ahead of both Ferraris – set him up well, as did “annoying” Sergio Perez on the opening lap by passing both the Red Bull driver and Lando Norris’s McLaren for second place.

“I saw that they’re [Perez and Verstappen] close, that they’re battling, they’re going wide in Turn 2 and then decided [to go] for the inside line in Turn 3 and stayed tight and picked up Checo’s position,” Hulkenberg said when The Race asked about the move.

“Which probably would have really annoyed him, he lost a lot of time behind me!”

Perez spent almost 12 laps behind his old team-mate before passing him as the track began to dry and Haas’s usual 2023 flaw reared its head, with Hulkenberg’s intermediates overheating.

Had it remained wet it could have been a very different story – the wet track masks Haas’s primary weakness and further rain could have given Hulkenberg half a sniff of an even better finish.

But instead the drying track left Hulkenberg vulnerable to the cars behind – he lost third to Carlos Sainz on the next lap and then pitted three laps later as the Aston Martins swallowed him.

Hulkenberg was losing two seconds per lap to Perez in the five laps after Perez passed him – and more importantly a reasonable chunk of time to the Williams of Alex Albon behind – forcing Haas into the “only decision” it could take in pitting Hulkenberg for slicks.

However, to give away a points-paying position to a direct rival in Williams so early in the crossover phase – only two drivers had pitted at that point – was the kind of proactive decision-making that makes the difference in F1’s ultra-tight midfield.

Albon had been doing Hulkenberg a favour in holding up a train of faster cars like Esteban Ocon’s Alpine and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. He wasn’t facing anywhere near the same level of degradation as Hulkenberg, saying he would have “comfortably held off Esteban” had Williams not pitted him two laps after Hulkenberg.

“We should’ve left him out on the inters but we were expecting more degradation than there actually was,” Dave Robson head of vehicle performance at…