Haas F1 Team Principal Günther Steiner was pleased with the outcome of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, with the team earning their first point of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season just two races in.
Having contended with a mid-race safety car, Steiner said that the team had to truly battle to remain in contention for the points, with others benefitting from the neutralized period.
“First point this season. We had the speed but didn’t luck into it as some people were in a better position after the safety car, but the drivers fought hard, and we got a point.”
In the end, it was Kevin Magnussen who secured the point for the team after battling Yuki Tsunoda for tenth place into the closing laps, while Nico Hülkenberg crossed the line in twelfth.
Steiner praised the efforts of the entire team to claim this strong result, and is excited to see them continue this momentum going into the Australian Grand Prix.
“The whole team performed flawlessly all weekend, they kept their heads up and everyone just kept on pushing. That’s what we’re going to be doing all season long and I’m really looking forward to going to Australia now.”
Steiner feels good about their position as of the second round, having gotten a real chance to see where the car is performance-wise and how it fares against the rest of the field. With this, he hopes that they will continue to progress and achieve more solid results.
“As I said after Bahrain, I didn’t really know where we were with the car, but we now know where we think we are.”
“We’re in the mix, we’re actually pretty good I think – it’s all coming together. We didn’t panic after Bahrain – now we’re cautiously optimistic.”
