Hülkenberg Magnussen Falter with 16th 17th Starts

Haas F1 faces grip issues at Spa, leaving Hülkenberg and Magnussen starting 16th and 17th for the race.

Nico Hülkenberg expressed disappointment after being eliminated in Q1 in Belgium, where Haas F1 struggled to perform under rainy conditions. The German driver observed that it wasn’t the first time the VF-24 had difficulty in such settings.

“I believe our run plan was actually good, close to optimal, and I don’t feel we left anything on the table. Unfortunately, we lacked pace, I struggled on the intermediates, and we didn’t have the necessary grip to post a better lap time,” lamented Hülkenberg.

“It’s a bit of a recurring theme this season: on intermediates, the car isn’t in an ideal situation. We need to understand and analyze this for the future. I’m not sure if others opted for more downforce for the qualifying due to the rain, but if that’s the case, it could play to our advantage, though we’ll only find out tomorrow.”

Kevin Magnussen doesn’t think he could have done better: “I don’t think we were too far off what we could have best achieved. I did two timed laps in the second run, and the track was improving so much it would have been better to have done a timed lap with new tyres when the track was at its best.”

“We weren’t as competitive in these conditions as in the dry conditions of yesterday. We had prepared for a wet session, but there was almost a dry line by the end, which didn’t favor our plan, yet the performance wasn’t there.”