Moneygram Haas F1 Team’s boss Guenther Steiner left Bahrain rather disappointed, after the team missed out on points in the first race of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
Steiner admitted that Kevin Magnussen’s race was made even more difficult after the team started him on the wrong tyre, with the Danish driver being the only driver to start on the hard and not the soft compound tyre. Magnussen started low down on the grid after a poor qualifying session on Saturday, but showed good race pace to move up to thirteenth.
Nico Hulkenberg had an unlucky race on his return to Formula 1 at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Despite having a really good qualifying session, which ensured he started tenth, the German driver picked up damage on the first lap, causing him to lose a lot of pace in his first stint, which put a points finish out of reach after he switched his damaged front wing.
“The result wasn’t what we expected – Nico didn’t have a great start losing a front wing endplate and Kevin was, in hindsight, on the wrong tire at the start. I think race pace was better than we expected and that’s what we take away from here – there is good potential in the car,” said Steiner.
Steiner believes that the team can improve ahead of the next race and thinks that “points are possible” in the second race of the season, as F1 returns to Saudi Arabia for the third consecutive season.
“We qualified in the top 10 and maybe could even have been in the top eight if everything went perfectly. In the race it didn’t go our way, but we learned a lot and we now know that we’re in the ballpark on race pace like everybody else. We go to Jeddah well prepared, and we’ll see what we can do there – I think points are possible.”
