There was no shortage of surprises in qualifying for the British Grand Prix, starting with the Mercedes-branded front row, which was good at taking advantage of the mistakes and sloppiness of its rivals to secure a crucial pole position to achieve a good result in the race. However, scrolling through the top ten positions there are other names that deserve to be mentioned for the performances shown on the single lap, including those of Nico Hulkenberg and Alex Albon.
Analysing the performance of Haas, the surprise was undoubtedly to see the VF-24 capable of beating Ferrari, even though Carlos Sainz’s last attempt in Q3 was affected by traffic on the preparation lap, as well as by the errors then made by the Spanish driver himself in turn 4 and in the fast sequence.
However, the performance of the American team should not be a total surprise, because encouraging signs had already been seen in the past events. At the beginning of the year, the most marked limitation of the VF-24 was certainly the performance in the fast corners, where there was a lack of aerodynamic load, while the car shone in the slower sections. However, already with the package that had debuted between China and the United States, the engineers had managed to make a leap in quality in that area, even if it had not emerged in such a marked way because it was masked by a series of tracks with characteristics oriented more towards medium-low speed corners, such as Imola, Monaco and Canada.
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas VF-24
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
The Barcelona weekend, however, showed how the step forward made by the VF-24 on the high-speed sections was greater than expected: even if no points were scored, Hulkenberg had in fact duelled with the Alpines until the checkered flag, demonstrating the leap in performance even on tracks that, previously, Haas would have feared. Progress was then confirmed by the excellent performance last week in Austria, with a double top ten that placed Haas as the reference team in the midfield. Furthermore, the German driver had also been able to resist the attacks of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull towards the end, who however had a damaged side of the car, taking home a sixth place that was very precious in terms of the constructors’ standings.
At Silverstone, Haas showed up with another package of technical innovations, the second of the season, aimed in particular at improving the fast corners, while at the same time increasing the overall load. Linked to this, one of the objectives was to improve the consistency of the load on the rear axle during the cornering phase, reducing the sliding phenomena of the rear tyres, which would therefore also allow a step forward in terms of tyre management.
The conception of these updates, in fact, began when the team was still convinced that the main problem of the car was the performance in the fast corners. The package introduced in the first part of the season had however already guaranteed progress in that area, so much so that the limitations have started to move towards the medium-speed corners, as explained by the drivers a few weeks ago.
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas VF-24
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
In the end, Hulkenberg managed to score a beautiful sixth place, while Magnussen went out in Q1 after a mistake by the Dane himself and a wrong strategy by the pits. “Q1 was very, very close. I think we got the timing a bit wrong and the red flag caused by Perez complicated the situation. Then I only had one lap available and we were lucky to get through,” said the Haas driver.
“Q2 was good. My last lap wasn’t great, I think it was more than that, I had a bit of understeer in Turn 13 and went a bit wide, but it was still a good result and I’m very happy. I think the updates are working and everyone is pushing hard and doing a great job,” said the German.
Hulkenberg had only tried the updates in the afternoon on Friday, as the new package had been entrusted to rookie Bearman in FP1, leaving the German to compare the two specifications. However, when the new tyres were fitted to his car in the second free practice session, the feeling was immediately positive: “I think yesterday, when we fitted them for FP2, it was generally better, I smiled straight away, and that’s always a very positive sign. When you have that feeling with the updates, I think our race pace will improve too.”
Telemetry comparison between Hulkenberg and Sainz: you can see the greater effectiveness of the Haas in the high-speed corners
Photo by: Gianluca D’Alessandro
“The new features immediately gave a positive feeling, they really had an effect on the performance, I could feel an improvement, so you have to applaud the team. I feel more confident in the car, which allows me to push during the lap”.
The German also managed to position himself ahead of the two Ferraris, then beating Sainz in Q3. One of the points where a performance difference was seen between the two cars lies precisely in the fast corners, one of the Reds’ weak points, where instead the Haas, especially on the flying lap, was able to exploit the innovations to the point of securing a nice third row. However, if Hulkenberg is not new to outstanding results on the flying lap, on the other hand the Haas driver himself doubts that he will be able to keep the Reds behind him in the race, aiming to beat the other midfield teams to bring home key points for the constructors’ championship.
“I don’t think we can keep up with the Ferraris in the race, they have a superior pace, I don’t see a scenario where we can keep up with them. I think our real challenge is with the Aston Martins, we will try to beat them, but I think we shouldn’t hide either, I think our car is competitive. We have to fight.”
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